Murali Sreeshankar is set to return to the prestigious Diamond League in Paris on Friday. The Indian long jumper will be hoping to meet qualification standards for the upcoming 2023 Athletics World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The 24-year-old athlete finished in sixth place in Monaco with a jump of 7.94m in his debut Diamond League appearance in 2022. He was expected to finish well as he had won a historic silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK just a week prior to the event last year.
He has already secured qualification for the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, with a leap of 8.18m at the International Jumping Meeting 2023 in Kallithea, Greece.
Sreeshankar is now targeting the Athletics World Championships. This April, the Indian athlete breached the qualification mark (8.25m) for the World Championships with a jump of 8.29m at the MVA High-Performance athletics meet in Chula Vista, USA. Although he won the gold medal at the event, his jump had wind assistance of +3.1m/s.
The Diamond League event in Paris will feature a highly competitive field, including Olympic medallists Miltiadis Tentoglou and Maykel Masso (gold and bronze, respectively) and World Championships bronze medallist Simon Ehammer.
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Sreeshankar's personal best of 8.36m places him fourth among the personal bests of the competitors in Paris, behind Tentoglou's 8.60m, Ehammer's 8.45m, and Masso's 8.39m.
How has Murali Sreeshankar performed in 2023 so far?
| Date | Competition | Result | Wind |
| April 10, 2023 | Indian Grand Prix, Sree Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium, Bengaluru | 7.94 | -1.6 |
| April 30, 2023 | MVA HP #1, CVEATC, Chula Vista, CA | 8.29 | +3.1 |
| May 24, 2023 | International Jumping Meeting "Filahtlitikos Kallithea", Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium, Kallithea, Athina | 8.18 | +0.6 |
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