Jeswin Aldrin ends long wait to own men’s Long Jump National Record with 8.42m leap

Jeswin Aldrin ends long wait to own men’s Long Jump National Record with 8.42m leap

Jeswin Aldrin (Tamil Nadu) captured the spotlight with a new National Record of 8.42m in the men’s Long Jump in the second AFI National Jumps Competition at the Inspire Institute of Sports in Vidyanagar near here this evening. He broke the 8.36m mark set by M Sreeshankar in the Federation Cup in Kozhikode in April last year.

The 21-year-old, who won the Asian Indoor Championships silver medal with a 7.97m effort last month, made the most of being in competitive shape to earn the National Record. That distinction eluded him in Kozhikode where he won gold with a leap of 8.37m but since it was a wind-aided effort, he could not make the record his. 

A measure of his dominance can be had from the fact he was the only competitor to pass the 8m mark this evening. He opened with 8.05m and followed it up with 8.26 before finding the combination of speed and power to get to 8.42m. He could afford to pass the next three jumps, leaving Muhammed Anees Yahiya (Kerala) in a distant second place at 7.85m

“The National record has been a while coming and I am happy it has come at a venue where I have been training. It is the result of the hard work turned in here over the last few years,” he said, having qualified for this year’s World Athletics Championships, Asian Games and next year’s Olympic Games. “I now want to produce this kind of performance at the global level.”

Earlier, Gayathry Sivakumar set a new women’s Triple Jump meet record with a hop, step and jump over 12.98m to break the 12.68m mark set by Aleena Jose in the inaugural edition in Thiruvananthapuram last year. She had only two valid jumps in six attempts, but both were good for gold. She opened with a 12.46 and got the record in her third attempt.

Tamil Nadu’s R Punitha, who edged out an error-prone Sharvari Parulekar (Maharashtra) in the contest for the women’s Triple Jump silver medal, saw the tables being turned in the evening when Manisha Merel (Odisha) came up with a last-ditch 5.96m effort. Punitha had two jumps of 5.85m but strained a muscle and had to pass the last two attempts.

The results: 
Men
Long Jump: 1. Jeswin Aldrin (Tamil Nadu) 8.42m (New National and Meet Records. Old NR: 8.36, M Sreeshankar, Kozhikode, 2022; Old MR: 8.17, M Sreeshankar, Thiruvananthapuram, 2022); 2. Muhammed Anees Yahiya (Kerala) 7.85; 3. Rishabh Rishishwar (Uttar Pradesh) 7.77.
Women
Pole Vault: 1. G Sindhushree (Karnataka) 3.50m; 2. Vibha Srinivasa (Karnataka) 3.20.
High Jump: 1. Abhinaya Shetty (Karnataka) and Rubina Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 1.73m; 3. Niranjana Sampath (Tamil Nadu) 1.60.
Long Jump: 1. L Sruthilekshmi (Kerala) 6.11m; 2. Manisha Merel (Odisha) 5.96; 3. R Punitha (Tamil Nadu) 5.85.
Triple Jump: 1. Gayathry Sivakumar (Kerala) 12.98m (New Meet Record. Old: 12.68, Aleena Jose, Thiruvananthapuram, 2022); 2. R Punitha (Tamil Nadu) 12.39; 3. Sharvari Parulekar (Maharashtra) 12.30.