Inter State Athletics Championships 2023: Murali Sreeshankar qualifies for Asian Games and World Championships

Jeswin Aldrin also progressed to the final.

A short stint on day 4 of the Inter State Athletics Championships 2023 came to an end. Murali Sreeshankar came out all guns blazing in the men's long jump with a best jump of 8.41m (0.1m) behind National Record holder Jeswin Aldrin in the qualifying round. Jeswin Aldrin progressed to the final with ease recording 7.83m with the final slated to be held tomorrow. With this jump, Sreeshankar books his place for the World Championships set to be held in Budapest, Hungary.

Also, the top two jumps of the season to date belong to the Indians (Jeswin Aldrin - 8.42m and Murali Sreeshankar - 8.41m). Later in the day, three Javelin throwers (Kishore Kumar Jena, Shivpal Singh, and Anuj Kalera) breached the Asian Games qualification mark of 78.23m. Seasoned campaigners Rohit Yadav, Manu DP, and Sachin Yadav qualified for the final and will be hopeful of breaching the Asaid mark as well.

Inter State Athletics Championships 2023 day 4 other results

The women's long jump along with the men's is going to be an exciting contest tomorrow. Keralites Ancy Sojan and Nayana James along with Shaili Singh have qualified for the final. Ancy Sojan in particular recorded a best jump of 6.49m and thereby qualified for the Asian Games. Shaili Singh recently finished third at the Seiko Grand Prix in Japan with a jump of 6.65m. Earlier in the season she recorded the second-best jump by an Indian woman) at the Indian Grand Prix.

Middle-distance runner Harmilan Bains moved into the final by finishing first in the women's 800m heat 1. She was closely followed by Pooja and 1500m champion Deeksha who finished second and third respectively.

The day concluded with the 400m hurdles with Vithya Ramraj securing a place in the Asiads. She clocked 57.23 sec in heat 2 and was the lone athlete to go below 58 secs across the two heats. Yashas and Santhosh Kumar topped their respective heats in the men's 400m hurdles and progressed to the final.