Mumbai: With a best jump of 7.75 meters, Murali Sreeshankar, India's best long jumper, maintained his optimistic comeback from a protracted injury layoff by winning the Meeting Maia Cidade do Desporto in Maia, Portugal on Saturday.

Since taking home the silver at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, this was Sreeshankar's first trip to the international stage. The event was a bronze-level World Athletics Continental Tour meet. Since returning from a career-threatening knee injury that required surgery and a tough rehabilitation program, this was also his second trip in as many weeks. After a long absence from competition, Sreeshankar performed admirably at the Indian Open in Pune on Saturday (July 12), landing an 8.05-meter jump.

"To make a long tale short... I'm back," Sreeshankar wrote on Instagram following the Pune conference. “This recovery journey has taught me about life outside of sports. Cheers to the next chapter with my new knee.”

Under the pressure of having to attend two events every week on two different continents, the new knee appears to have stood up well. Sreeshankar's first jump in Portugal was 7.63 meters, and he increased it to 7.75 meters on his second attempt. After a 7.69-meter jump, there was a calm back end that included a foul and leaps of 6.12 and 7.58 meters. Although Piotr Tarkowski of Poland produced a jump of 7.75 meters in his fifth attempt, the Indian's superior next best effort (7.69 meters compared to Tarkowski's 7.58 meters) pushed him to the top of the eight-man competition.

At Pune, the 26-year-old showed significantly superior distances overall, with leaps of 7.84 m, 7.99 m, 7.84 m, 8.05 m, and 7.84 m completing a strong comeback. After months of inactivity, Sreeshankar's confidence that he is on the correct track can only be boosted by his performance and result at a competition in Portugal the following week.

A return from an injury is never simple, much less one that nearly ended a promising career.

In April 2024, the long jumper suffered a knee injury while practicing in Kerala, which brought his incredible 2023 season to a halt. During that season, he finished third at the Paris Diamond League, recorded his personal best of 8.41 meters, earned silver at the Asian Games, and earned a spot in the Paris Olympics.

After suffering a patellar tendon rupture, Sreeshankar was forced to have a significant operation despite being sure of making a name for himself in his second Olympics.

The injury was severe, which caused the healing to be considerably slower. On social media, the Inspire Institute of Sport, where Sreeshankar was based for his rehabilitation, uploaded a video with bits of the suffering and perseverance that went into the whole procedure. It can assess any athlete's resilience, and Sreeshankar, a fan of Kobe Bryant, the American basketball star, channeled the Mamba Mentality of concentrating on and believing in the process. The fact that Sreeshankar had previously been stopped by physical setbacks and had rebounded with more determination and larger strides each time was beneficial.

This time, nothing would change. Following its last participation in October 2023, this July 2025 return is also looking good thus far. The biggest hurdle for India's top jumper will now be to return to the level he was at prior to the injury and to have faith that he should be there.

This bronze-level encounter is just one little step toward getting back to the level of Diamond League competitions where Sreeshankar was a frequent and uncommon Indian face in 2023. In addition, he consistently made jumps of over 8 meters, which is the bar he wants to keep meeting.

The qualifying mark for this year's World Championships in Tokyo, which is due on August 24, is 8.27 meters. The past few weeks have demonstrated that Sreeshankar is truly back, even if it may be a bit of a leap in his road to recovery.

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