India’s Murali Sreeshankar qualified for the final of the men’s long jump event on Sunday.

Sreeshankar, who needed to breach the eight-metre mark to qualify, successfully crossed the mark in his first attempt with a jump of 8.01 metres.

The 27-year-old, who won the silver medal at the 2022 Games in Birmingham, will now be aiming to go the distance in the final, which is scheduled to take place on July 29, Wednesday.

Sreeshankar was the first athlete in the Qualifying Group A in the men’s qualifying round. He is currently placed first in the group ahead of Jamaica’s Jordan Turner who recorded a jump of 7.80.

If the Kerala jumper had failed to breach the qualification mark, he would have needed to finish in the top 12 after the completion of two groups in the qualification round to make it through.

In Birmingham, Sreeshankar had qualified top among all athletes with a jump of 8.05 but ended up finishing second in the final with 8.08 level with gold medal winner LaQuan Nairn from the Bahamas who had the higher ‘second-best’ jump.

Published on Jul 27, 2026