Indian athlete Murali Sreeshankar, who hails from Kerala, created history at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Thursday. He has become India’s first athlete to have won silver in men’s long jump at the CWG. The 23-year-old silver champion achieved the feat with a long jump of 8.08 m. While Laquan Nairn, who hails from Bahamas, won the gold medal, South Africa’s Jovan van Vuuren secured bronze in the tournament.
According to Sportstar, Sreeshankar is also India’s fourth long-jump medallist after Suresh Babu (bronze), Anju Bobby George (bronze), and MA Prajusha (silver) who won in 1978, 2002, and 2010 at the CWG respectively.
Murali Sreeshankar’s latest win has reminded netizens of the times when the athlete was diagnosed with appendicitis four years ago and had to undergo surgery. Eventually, he couldn’t compete in the 2018 Commonwealth Games due to the diagnosis. A Twitter user, @jon_selvaraj, the sports journalist, posted a video of Sreeshankar’s performance at the ongoing games and recalled:
Murali Sreeshankar couldn’t compete and nearly died after his appendix burst just before the 2018 CWG.
-Jonathan Selvaraj
Check out the reactions of Twitterati:
According to NDTV, Laquan Nairn also had a best jump of 8.08m but his second best of 7.98m was better than Sreeshankar’s 7.84m. As per the rules, if two athletes are tied on same distance, the one who has a better second best effort will be ranked ahead, the report suggests. Now, let’s see what netizens have to say about this:
As per a 2018 report by Scroll, talking about Sreeshankar, his father S Murali had earlier said, “There was a scan done and the doctor advised for an immediate surgery to remove his appendix. He will undergo surgery.”
What a comeback Murali Sreeshankar! Keep shining.