Indian Open Athletics Meet Pune: Murali Sreeshankar secures long jump gold on his comeback with 8.05m - Highlights
Catch all the highlights from the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Pune on Saturday.
Murali Sreeshankar in action at the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Pune. (File Photo)
A few of the top Indian athletes were returning to the competitive field after a long time at the Indian Open Athletics Meet at the Savitribai Phule Pune University Sports Complex on Saturday.
The biggest name of the competition was long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, who was returning to the competitive field for the first time since his heartbreaking injury just before the Paris Olympics.
The Indian lead in the women's 400m, Aishwarya Mishra, also returned to the competition for the first time after her fabulous 51.12s run at the National Games in February 2025, chasing the World Championships qualification mark.
On the other hand, the young 20-year-old Shivam Lokhare wins the men's javelin throw gold medal, ahead of favourite Vikrant Malik, with his first ever 80m plus throw.
As it happened:
He clinched the title by bettering his personal best by almost 4 meters and breaching the 80m mark for the first time in his career.
Men's Javelin Throw Medalists:
Shivam Lokhare - 80.95m
Shashank Patil - 74.37m
Anand Singh - 73.50m
Despite having a headwind of 1.9m/s, Murali had a brilliant leap of 8.05m and became the first Indian to cross the 8m mark this year in men's long jump.
Murali, playing in a tournament after almost 2 years, showed no glimpse of his injury concerns and started from where he left off to clinch the title in his first tournament of the year.
He jumped to a height of 2.20m to clinch the title. This is now the fourth time Sarvesh has cleared the 2.20m mark this year, but he still might need a better performance to qualify for the world championships.
Medalists:
Gold - Sarvesh Kushare - 2.20m
Silver - Dhairyshil Dhanaji - 2.10m
Silver - Swadhin Kumar Majhi - 2.10m
He attained a distance of 80.95m on his final attempt.
He touched an 8.05 metres on his fourth attempt to further extend his lead in the competitive field.
With just two months to go for the world championships, Murali might be aiming to make a late entry to the Indian squad for the event by breaching the qualifying mark of 8.27m
Murali had an impressive outing on his comeback, having all three valid jumps, having a 7.8m+ leap in each of three attempts.
Murali so far
1st Jump: 7.84m
2nd Jump: 7.99m
3rd Jump: 7.84m
Another impressive timing of 46.02s from Vishal TK to clinch the 400m men's title ahead of experienced Amoj Jacob.
This will give some good ranking points to Vishal, which will improve his race to Tokyo rankings.
Medalists:
Vishal TK - 46.02s
Amoj Jacob - 46.59s
JayKumar - 46.76s
Amoj clocked a sub-47s time (46.59s) to go on top of the standings after heat 3.
Current Leaders:
Amoj Jacob - 46.59s
Santosh Kumar T - 46.84s
A Suraj - 47.05s
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