On the comeback trail, India’s Murali Sreeshankar extended his winning streak to three after bagging the men’s long jump title at the Qosanov Memorial 2025 athletics meet, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.
The 26-year-old Indian athlete produced a winning leap of 7.94m on his opening attempt to secure the top spot at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze label (category C) meet.
Janry Ubas of the Philippines was second with 7.53m, while Azerbaijan’s Nazim Babayev finished third with 7.48m.
This was Sreeshankar’s third athletics competition since returning from a knee injury, which he suffered in April last year.
He had to undergo surgery and consequently missed the Paris 2024 Olympics despite securing a quota for last year’s global showpiece in France.
Sreeshankar marked his comeback to the tracks last month by winning the Indian Open in Pune with an 8.05m jump and followed it up with a 7.75m effort to top the podium at the Meeting Maia Cidade do Desporto in Portugal.
Sreeshankar’s last international appearance before injury was a silver-medal finish at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China.
Sreeshankar, an Asian Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games medallist, is slated to compete across Europe and Central Asia till August 14 as he aims to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo this September.
The men’s long jump qualification standard for Tokyo25 is set at 8.27m.