Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar qualifies for Tokyo Olympics

Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar has qualified for the long jump event of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with a leap of 8.26m at the 24th Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships on Tuesday.

The Tokyo Olympics qualifying mark in men's long jump is 8.22m. But the 21-year-old jumped 8.26m in his final attempt to obliterate his earlier national record of 8.20m set at the 2018 National Open Athletics Championships. In the process, he also qualified for the prestigious quadrennial competition.

"Sreeshankar qualifies for Olympics! #TOPSAthlete long jumper #Sreeshankar has qualified for #Tokyo2020 with a national record jump of 8.26m at the Federation Cup. He surpassed his own record of 8.20m and the Olympic qualifying mark of 8.22m. #GemsofSAI #JeetengeOlympics," SAI Media tweeted post Murali Sreeshankar's qualification.

Murali Sreeshankar betters his personal best en route to Olympic qualification.

Murali Sreeshankar's previous national record stood at 8.20m.

The men's long jump final event was the only field event to be held on the second day of the Federation Cup tournament.

Murali Sreeshankar recently made headlines after raising the bar in long jump by leaping 8.05m in the second season of the recently-concluded Indian Grand Prix Athletics meet.

That's a ticket for #Tokyo2020 for Murli Sreeshankar in that pic.Sree jumped 8.26m in his 5th attempt & improved his own National Record! Prev. record 8.20mWell done champ!@SonySportsIndia pic.twitter.com/WSgBuWp6hs

— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) March 16, 2021

In other notable results on the day, S Dhanalakshmi clocked an impressive 11.39s to beat the seasoned Dutee Chand, who clocked 11.58s as she continues to make her preparations to qualify for the Olympics.

Also, Read: Javelin thrower Annu Rani breaks her own national record but misses Olympic qualifying mark.

It was, however, the end of the road for the former 400m world junior champion Hima Das. The 21-year-old sprinter was disqualified from the women's 100m sprint final after a false start.

Speculations were abuzz with two of India's most celebrated female sprinters, Chand and Das, fighting for top honours in the women's 100m sprint final on Tuesday. No Indian female runner, however, managed to breach the qualifying mark of 11.15s at the event.

Meanwhile, Gurindervir Singh bagged the top honours in the men’s 100m final after clocking an impressive 10.32 seconds. He failed to surpass his personal best of 10.30s, which he clocked on Monday, though.

Tamil Nadu's Elakkiyadasan Kannada clocked 10.43s and Maharashtra’s Satish Krishnakumar clocked 10.56s to come second and third, respectively. The seasoned M R Poovamma clinched the gold in the women’s 400m final event, finishing the race in a mere 53.57 seconds.