Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar finished in third place in the Paris Diamond League with a jump of 8.09mm, becoming only the only third Indian to finish in the top three positions of a Diamond League competition after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda.
This was also a maiden top-three finish in the prestigious one-day meeting series for the long jumper.
The Commonwealth Games silver medallist achieved his best jump of the day in his third attempt on Friday night. His 8.09m effort was well below his season's best of 8.18m, while his personal best of 8.36m came in 2022.
Meanwhile, Olympic champion and world number one Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece took the top spot with his fifth-round jump of 8.13m, just 4cm longer than Sreeshankar.
Switzerland's World Championships bronze medallist Simon Ehammer finished second with his fourth-round jump of 8.11m. For Sreeshankar, his jumps were 7.79m, 7.94m, foul, 7.99m and foul. He was leading after the third round before Ehammer and Tentoglou went ahead.
The Indian however finished ahead of Olympic bronze medallist Maykel Masso (sixth place with 7.83m) from Cuba and Sweden’s World No. 4 Thobias Montler (seventh with 7.82m) to join India's exclusive three-member DL club.
Olympic champion Chopra is the reigning Diamond League champion in javelin throw after winning the Finals in Zurich last September.
This was Sreeshankar's second foray in the Diamond League Meeting series. He finished sixth in the Monaco leg in 2022.
After this victory, Sreeshankar now has six qualification points for the Diamond League to be held in Eugene, USA, in September. He will also get valuable ranking points in his bid to qualify for the World Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary, in August.
Sreeshankar, who has been training in Greece for the last one month, is yet to achieve the World Championships automatic entry standard of 8.25m and the deadline is July 30.
He can still qualify through the world ranking route as he is 20th in the Road to Budapest rankings, which will be the basis to pick 36 competitors for the showpiece.
In his next outing, Sreeshankar is set to compete in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar from June 15-19.
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