CHENNAI: From career-threatening injury to World Championships in Tokyo next month, M Sreeshankar’s journey is nothing short of a miracle. What seemed even more dramatic was the time he had taken to achieve that feat after missing out for more than one and a half years.
The former national record holder had just five competitions to qualify for the worlds when he made a return after 650 days following a surgery to heal a ruptured patellar tendon in July. And on Wednesday, he qualified through Road to Tokyo rankings at No 36 – the last slot.
While competing at the Inter-state athletics championships in Chennai, Sreeshankar had said that it would be a miracle if he qualifies. “My season is over for now,” was what he said on the final day of the event (Sunday). However, his father S Murali, who is also his coach, said they knew he would make it to the World Championships after the inter-state nationals. “We came to know about the qualification on Sunday but were waiting for the final list,” he told this daily from Thiruvananthapuram.
Sreeshankar is back at the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for training and is feeling quite elated about the turn of events since his comeback. “Over a period of six weeks or so we have been trying to qualify and that his effort has borne fruit is something that will give any athlete satisfaction,” the father said, adding that whatever he has achieved in the last few weeks has been all Sreeshankar’s efforts.
“No one can take that away from him,” said Murali, who has seen the worst of times when Sreeshankar was injured and had to go through a rigorous rehabilitation process. The coach and his son shifted to Thiruvananthapuram because the centre is well equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and scientific support. Last year Sreeshankar spent about nine months in rehabilitation at the Inspire Institute of Sport, Bellary. “He started to train slowly in January and only in April did we start athletics training,” said Murali. “First he jumped about four metres, then four and a half and gradually he improved his distance.”
What seemed even more astounding is the fact that when other Indian long jumpers were struggling to jump 8 metres in the last season, Sreeshankar managed that in his first competition in Pune last month. “He is 100 per cent fit and will give his best in Tokyo,” said Murali.
There have been times when it was difficult for Sreeshankar to cope with the recovery but then he never gave up. “Last year around this time I was not even jumping and now I have managed to cross 8m,” he had said after his gold at the inter-state athletics in Chennai. “Though injured and knew about the severity, we athletes always think like Superman. I thought I would jump 8m right on my comeback,” he had said.