Long Jumper Murali Sreeshankar, one of India’s brightest gold medal prospects at the upcoming Asian Games 2023, is not leaving any stone unturned in preparation and is even skipping the prestigious Diamond League final in Eugene, USA to focus on the continental event.

While speaking to News 18, the long jumper said, “When I went to the Asian Games in 2018, I didn’t have a single eight-meter plus jump. But now when I go to the 2023 Asian Games, things are quite different. I have got global stage exposures, experiences.” 

He added, “I am ready to fight and be in the top contenders in Asia, so the competition should be really good. And we have very good competition from the Chinese jumpers and Japanese jumpers. I think we will be able to do quite well. I and my friend, Jeswin [Aldrin], are also competing in.”

Commenting on his decision to skip Diamond League for the Asian Games, Murali explained, “I didn’t want to skip this event at all, but it was my dad’s decision that we skip the Diamond League finals and get ready for the Asian Games because finals are happening in Eugene from tomorrow and long jump finals is happening on 17th and I just have got 12 days to prepare for the Asian Games. Preparation in the sense I have to travel from US to China, which approximately is like a 24-hour-plus journey, and also the time difference, is 15 and half hours." 

"So my dad, also my coach, believes that my body will find it difficult to accommodate these sudden drastic changes and I won’t be able to recover quite well after the competition. So it will be better if we skip it and focus on the quadrennial event. From an Indian perspective, Asian Games is a very big event. So we thought we’ll prioritize Asian Games over Diamond League final this season.”