Murali Sreeshankar finishes third in Paris Diamond League

Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar finished third in the Paris Diamond League 2023 on Friday with a best jump of 8.09m. With this result, he clinched his maiden Diamond League podium.

Greece's Miltiadis Tentoglou finished first (8.13m) and Switzerland's Simon Ehammer finished a close second (8.11m). A distance of 0.02m separated the top three jumpers at the Paris event.

Sreeshankar started off with a modest 7.79m before bettering it with 7.94m in his second attempt. It was in his third attempt that the Commonwealth Games 2022 silver-medallist jumped the 8.09m distance to cement his third-placed finish.

In May, Murali had clinched the gold medal at the 13th International Jumping Meeting Filahtlitikos in Greece with a best jump of 8.18m. A repeat of that performance would have gifted him a first-place finish by a mile.

It's very important that during this period of time we get to compete with each other at international competitions to gain more international exposure with top athletes from around the world. We want to get prepared for the big stage events like the World Championships and Asian Games which are lined up for this year," the Indian had said ahead of the Paris event.

The next event for Sreeshankar will be the Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneshwar on June 15, which will also serve as trials for the Asian Games.