Murali Sreeshankar, Priyanka Goswami, Sandeep Kumar's to train abroad

The sports ministry has approved Commonwealth Games silver medallist long jumper Murali Sreeshankar's proposal to train in Greece for over a month in preparation for the World Athletics Championship and Asian Games later this year.

The long jumper, along with his coach Sivasankaran Murali, would be training in Greece for 32 days, the cost of which will be covered under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), a ministry release said on Friday. Sreeshankar is currently training under international coach Keith Herston at the Texas Tech University till the end of this month, funding for which has also been covered under TOPS.

Besides Sreeshankar, the government's Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), in its 95th meeting, also approved proposals of racewalkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar to train and compete in Melbourne, Australia for 16 days.

The duo, along with their coach Gurmeet Singh is expected to leave for Australia on May 15. Besides athletics, MOC also approved the proposal of judoka Linthoi Chanambam towards foreign training-cum-competitions in Georgia and Poland.

Linthoi, who had earlier trained in Japan under TOPS funding, is aiming to compete in the Gori Cadet European Cup across Georgia and Poland and subsequently training at the same locations along with her coach Mamuka Kizilashvili. The foreign training-cum-competition will last 28 days during which Linthoi will train and compete in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Poland.