Muhammed Anees Yahiya narrowly missed the bronze medal as Great Britain’s Jack Roach finished third.
Indian long jumper Muhammed Anees Yahiya, at the Cyprus International Athletics Meeting, closely missed winning a bronze medal on Thursday. The bronze went to Great Britain’s Jack Roach, who finished third with a jump of 7.60m. Roach’s jump was similar to that of Yahiya, but he won the bronze due to a higher second-best jump. Roach’s second-best jump was 7.58m, and Yahiya was behind him by 0.07m.
Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin made it one-two for India in men’s long jump during the International Jumping Meeting. The Meeting was a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level event, held in Kallithea, Greece.
In fact, Sreeshankar bagged gold with a season-best of 8.18m (wind speed: +0.6m/s) in his final attempt. He had also won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year after the 24-year-old started with a jump of 7.94m before reaching 8.17m, 8.11m, 8.04m and 8.01m in his following attempts. He bagged the gold last year as well with a best jump of 8.31m.
At the time, he became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in the men's Long Jump event at the Commonwealth Games.
Coming to Aldrin, he wrapped up second and won silver with 7.85m (wind speed: 0.5m/s). The 21-year-old, who is also the national record-holder, kicked off his jump with 7.81m before getting his best in the second attempt. His next three jumps were at 7.74m, 7.74m and 7.79m while the last one went in a foul.
Meanwhile, as for Yahiya, he too performed well at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year. With a best jump of 7.97m, he ended up finishing fifth in the same event.
