Murali Sreeshankar to start his season at Shanghai Diamond League

Top Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar will start his season at the Shanghai Diamond League on 27th April in a crucial Olympic year.

He will continue in the DL circuit and participate in Doha Diamond League on 10th May.

The 25-year-old long jumper from Kerala became only the third Indian to finish in the top three in a Diamond League meeting in the Paris leg on June 0 with a third-place finish, after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda.

He had won a silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year but was disappointed with a qualifying round exit in the 2023 Budapest World Championships.

"Team IIS athlete Sreeshankar Murali will begin his 2024 season at the Shanghai DL, and then make his way to Qatar for the Doha DL. Let's do this, Sree!," said a tweet from Inspire Institute of Sport where Sreeshankar trains.

In Doha, Sreeshankar will be joined by Chopra and another Indian javelin thrower Kishore Jena in a star-studded field. Both Chopra and Jena are starting their season in Doha.

Meanwhile, 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker will compete in the season's first Diamond League Meeting in Xiamen, China, on April 20.

Earlier last year, Sreeshankar recorded a jump of 8.41m to book his berth for the upcoming Paris Olympics. Jeswin Aldrin is another Indian long jumper who has qualified for the Olympics.