Murali Sreeshankar, the Indian long jumper, was flying in to his career at the Commonwealth Games 2026 and stormed into the men’s long jump final with a record first attempt. The star athlete competed in Qualifying Group A at the international stadium in Glasgow and needed a leap of 8.00 metres to win the medal round. Sreeshankar was so disciplined in his approach to work in the final and so well trained in his sport that he was able to take home a perfect 8.01 metres. He didn’t try and get to the gold medal round and he let his body go in the last few days.
Sreeshankar’s commanding opening jump immediately elevated him to be at the top of his group and cemented him as one of India’s most celebrated track and field stars. But to get to this level required a career of fierce resilience, great wins and severe physical setbacks.
Born in Palakkad, Kerala, he was born in a sports family (his father S. Murali was a triple jump silver medalist in the South Asian Games and his mother K.S. Bijimol won a silver medal at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships). Sreeshankar started his career as a sprinter initially. He even won state-level under-10 titles in 50m and 100m events in his youth and made a career-changing move to the long jump pit at the age of 13 under the tutelage of his father. His early senior career tested his mental fortitude profoundly. But just four days before the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 he had a sudden bout of appendicitis, requiring emergency surgery to lose weight and to recover quickly from that and his recovery was very hard. He rebounded two months later to claim a gritty bronze at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships, refusing to surrender to misfortune. He smashed the national record with an 8.20m leap at the National Open Championships in Bhubaneswar.
Over the years, Sreeshankar established his dominance throughout Asia and the world. He set a new national record of 8.26m at the Federation Cup in Patiala for the Tokyo Olympics and made it to the finals at the Tokyo Olympics, which proved to be a dream of his. He had to drop out of the finals at Tokyo 2020 and was in a tough learning curve but he continued to shine in a fabulous 2022-2023 season. He finished seventh at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and he made history at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games by winning the silver medal in the long jump, becoming the first Indian male long jumper to achieve this feat (as well as a record-breaking score of 8.41m) and made history in Hangzhou with another silver medal and made an eye-opening 8.41m jump in Bhubaneswar to win the Arjuna Award in 2023.
Although a knee injury required surgery and took him out of the Paris Olympic cycle, Sreeshankar’s relentless rehabilitation and triumphant return on the World Athletics Continental Tour showed his indefatigable spirit. With that strong resilience and a season’s best performance in Glasgow 2026, India’s best jumper is ready to turn years of hard work into podium victory.
