National record-holding long jumper Sreeshankar Murli, who recently won a Gold Medal for the country at the 12th International Jumping Meeting held in Kalithea, Greece, said that he was struggling with his rhythm in the first two jumps.
"I was struggling with my rhythm in the first two jumps but I got a decent one in the third. The rhythm problem came again in the fourth jump. The fifth and sixth jumps were really good. I got a feeling that the board is approaching closer to me so I was able to generate more speed. So it was all about rhythm. I was struggling a bit because I could not train as the rain had been affecting our training back at home. It was really unprecedented and unlikely to rain in May. So we could not do full approach jumping sessions," said Murli in a media interaction.
The gold medalist said that it was a great feeling competing with world-class jumpers at the event.
"Montler, Pommery are great jumpers and world championship medalists. The atmosphere was really electrifying with jumpers pushing each other," he added.
Murli said that it was nice interacting with world-class jumpers like Greece's Miltos Tentoglou, Sweden's Thobias Montler and Jules Pommery of France.
"Miltos was really hospitable and caring and superb to interact with. It was he who helped us come here to Greece. He made full arrangements for our training," he added.
Murli said that his targets in the ongoing season are to win medals at World Championships and at Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
He is the national record-holding long jumper and won the gold medal after completing a jump of 8.31 metres.
Sweden's reigning World Indoor silver medallist Thobias Montler got the silver medal with a jump of 8.27m while France's Jules Pommery got the third position with an 8.17m jump.
( With inputs from ANI )
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