From life-threatening appendicitis to silver CWG, ‘really tough comeback’ for long jumper Murali Sreeshankar | News about the 2022 Commonwealth Games

NEW DELHI: He was able to sleep in just three hours after winning the historic silver medal in Birmingham. He couldn’t have time to talk to his mother until the next day. But no one in the athlete’s family from the Palakkad district in Kerala has complained. Murali SreeshankarYoung Olympic athlete in the house, won the first and the country’s maiden title The game of commonwealth (CWG) medal in long jump.
“We’ve all been waiting for this medal for a long time.” When Sreeshankar refers to “all”, he is specifically referring to his father and coach, Murali Sivashankar, a former triple jumper, and mother KS Bijimol, a former international 800m runner.
“I finished seventh at World Indoors, sixth times in Asian Games and World Youth Championships. So this really means a lot to me,” he said. when talking to TimesofIndia.com by phone from Birmingham.
If not for a controversial foul in Sreeshankar’s fourth lap jump, he would have worn gold instead of silver.
That jump nearly hit the 8.20m mark, as Sreeshankar anxiously waited to find out if the attempt was legit. It was a foul, and the amount of the difference was so small that it even looked legit in the photos that went viral on social media shortly after.

(Image source: Twitter)
“I felt really good (about the 4th jump). The whole team was very excited about that jump. But when it was ruled invalid, we were like ‘oh, sh**'”, he recalls. “It’s called fouled by the smallest margin you can imagine, but there’s no reason to say that now. I’m glad I was able to make a good jump in the fifth innings. and be on the podium.”
On the 5th attempt, Sreeshankar balanced the 8.08m mark registered by Laquan Nairn of the Bahamas. The final ended with both men on the same point, which meant Sreeshankar was pushed to second place after the countdown. Sreeshankar’s second-best jump in the series is 7.84m, while Nairn’s second-best distance is 7.98m.
But the Indians had no attitude to complain, be it luck or the changing rules and introduction of technology by the World. Olympic last year, that might have robbed him of his gold medal.
“I missed a lot of times (in the international arena),” said the 23-year-old record holder. “Tokyo (the Olympics) didn’t go as planned. If you ask me, I never had any particular achievement to show off to myself or others. But now I’m happy because at least I’ve got a medal and can say I’ve worked hard all these years for this,” he said. TimesofIndia.com.

In the interest of sports fans, Sreeshankar went on to explain the rule change that made many athletes unhappy.
“Previously, the board was tilted 45 degrees to the take-off board. The plastic was at a specific height above the take-off board,” Sreeshankar said.
A layer of plasticine is placed immediately after the take-off board to detect whether at take-off any part of the player’s foot touches the foul line.
“But now the take-off board and the fouling board are at the same height and there is a horizontal plane in the middle,” he continued. “So instead of 45 degrees, there’s a 90-degree plane. So if you have a perfect jump with no extra centimeters and if the foot crosses the horizontal plane, that’s considered a violation. error. That’s what the new law is.” It has caused a lot of trouble for athletes.
“Even the measurement now isn’t tape, it’s an image measurement. The distance automatically appears on the screen after we complete the jump,” he added.

Going back to the years to come 2018, Sreeshankar couldn’t turn the tide in a better way after surviving the danger to his life. appendicitisso much so that he broke the national record the same year after missing the Gold Coast CWG to recover.
Sreeshankar recalls: “That period was very important.
“I never thought it could be this serious. If the appendix bursts inside the stomach, the chances are high that a person could die from the underlying infection that ruptured appendicitis can cause. Only after the surgery did I know that it was quite a serious thing.
“The journey back was really difficult, of course. I had to miss CWG (2018). Due to the infection and poisoning, I suffered a lot and had to go through a lot of pain. I finally made it. could break the national record (8.20m) of that same year,” he added TimesofIndia.com.
Sreeshankar has gone on to raise his national record twice since then, jumping 8.26m in 2021 to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and then improving on that record with 8.36m in year 2022.
And now he has a CWG silver medal proudly sitting on his chest proudly.

“I’d like to see it as a stepping stone or a humble beginning to achieve even more. I’ll definitely try to continue the momentum I’ve got here for the important tournaments and ultimately the towards the Paris Olympics (2024).”
From Birmingham, Sreeshankar will head straight to Monaco for the Diamond League, but he doesn’t have any goals in mind, especially in terms of hitting a specific mark on the sandpit.
“In terms of distance, I haven’t set any specific type of goal. What I’m looking at is staying consistent.”