World Championships: Murali Sreeshankar's attempt to bring medal home goes in vain as he finishes 7th

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Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar finished seventh in the finals on the second day of competitions at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday. His best effort was 7.96m.

Sreeshankar became the first Indian male athlete to qualify for the long jump finals in the World Championships. He had raised hopes of a historic medal in the showpiece. But his performance in the final was way below his season's and personal best of 8.36m.

He had three legal jumps -- the opening jump of 7.96m, the fourth round effort of 7.89m, and the last attempt of 7.83m. The other three tries were fouls.

The 23-year-old must be disappointed as he could not cross the 8m mark in six attempts. He had qualified for the finals with a best jump of exactly 8m in the qualification round on Saturday, finishing second in Group B and seventh overall.

Sreeshankar had gone into the championships in the joint second spot in the season's top list on the basis of his national record 8.36m jump.

China's Jianan Wang won the gold with a jump of 8.36m. Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won the silver with a best effort of 8.30m. Whereas Simon Ehammer (8.16m) of Switzerland took the bronze.

On the other hand,  Parul Chaudhary ran her personal best of 9:38.09 in the women's 3000m steeplechase to finish 12th in heat number two to miss out on the finals. She finished 31st overall.

In the competition, the top three finishers and the next six fastest across the three heats qualify for the finals.

In men's 400m hurdles, Madari Palliyalil Jabir also failed to advance to the semifinals after finishing seventh and last in heat number two with a time of 50.76s. He finished 31st overall across five heats.

In the competition, the top four finishers and the next four fastest across the five heats qualify for the semifinals.

(Inputs from PTI)