CWG silver medallist Abdulla Aboobacker wins gold in triple jump at Mikio Oda Memorial Athletics Meet in Japan

The 27-year-old achieved his season-best score in the tournament.

Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker Narangolintevida clinched the gold medal clocking a season-best score of 16.31m in the Mikio Oda Memorial Athletics meet in Hiroshima, Japan. The 27-year-old Keralite clocked his season-best score twice in the fifth and sixth attempts and notched up a good performance in the maiden foreign meet of the season.

Abdulla crossed the 16m mark five times in seven attempts overall in the Mikio Oda Memorial. Earlier this year, he claimed the third spot in two domestic meets by clocking 15.93m and 15.77m (Indian Open Jumps and Indian Grand Prix). The Keralite, after below-average performances in the domestic meet this year, has shown good improvement by constantly crossing the 16m mark in Japan.

Last year, he also won the silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 with a result of 17.02m, just 0.1m behind the gold medal mark. Compatriot Eldhose Paul clinched the gold medal at CWG 2022 by clocking 17.03m.

The 2022 season was one of the most successful ones for the Keralite. He crossed the 17m mark thrice and recorded his personal best mark of 17.19m in the Indian Grand Prix held in Bhubaneshwar. The 27-year-old also qualified for the World Athletic Championships 2022, but put in a below-average performance (best score-16.45m).

The qualification mark for World Athletics Championships 2023 stands at 17.20m. Abdulla needs to get back to his original form ahead of the all-important Senior Federation Cup and the National Inter-States Meet, to secure automatic qualification for the Worlds.

Among the other Indian Triple Jumpers, Praveen Chitravel came close to qualifying for the World Championships as he notched up a personal best score of 17.17m in the Indian Open Jumps and won the silver medal in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships recently.

Meanwhile, Eldhose Paul will soon be in action alongside Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra in the Doha Diamond League, starting May 5, 2023.