Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar extended his winning streak to five events this season with an 8.06m leap at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2025 in Chennai on Sunday.
However, the 26-year-old Indian athlete fell short of the 8.27m men’s long jump qualifying mark for the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month.
Returning from knee surgery that sidelined him from Paris 2024, Sreeshankar has now won every competition he has entered this season.
With the 2025 World Athletics Championships qualification window closing today, the six attempts at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai were Sreeshankar’s final opportunities to secure a direct spot at Tokyo25.
Sreeshankar, who holds the national record of 8.41m, has cleared 8.27m five times in his career.
Having missed a majority of the qualification window for Tokyo25, it may be difficult for Sreeshankar to qualify for the upcoming global showcase through the rankings route. The final list of qualified athletes will be announced on August 27.
S Lokesh (7.71m) and Swaminathan R (7.70m) took silver and bronze, respectively.
In the men’s javelin throw, Rohit Yadav led the field with a personal best of 83.65m and was followed by Sachin Yadav (83.20m) and Shivam Lohakare (80.20m).
Rohit, ranked 57th on Road to Tokyo 25, needed to breach the entry standard of 85.50m to qualify for the World Championships. The rankings, including the points from Inter-State Championships, will be updated on Monday.
With defending world champion Neeraj Chopra already assured of a berth, India are expected to field at least three throwers in Tokyo. Sachin Yadav (22nd) and Yash Vir Singh (30th) are currently sit inside the cut-off rankings.
Yash Vir Singh logged a distance of 76.22m at the Inter-State Championships to finish fourth.