CWG 2026: Murali Sreeshankar won silver medal, gold slipped by just 6 cm, still created history

India has won its 13th medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026. Murali Sreeshankar, one of India’s biggest hopes in athletics, won the silver medal in men’s long jump. In the long jump final held on Wednesday, July 29, India’s number-1 jumper Murali Sreeshankar created history by winning the silver medal with a long jump of 8.09 meters. He has won the long jump silver medal in CWG for the second consecutive time. He missed winning the gold medal by just 6 centimeters.

Returned after injury, won silver

The final of long jump was held in the athletics event being held at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow. Sreeshankar had made it to the finals with his very first throw in the qualifying round. In such a situation, there were huge expectations from him and he did not disappoint. This comeback was also very important for Sreeshankar, who was continuously troubled for the last two years due to injury. But when he came for the jump, it did not seem that he was nervous about such a big event for the first time after his injury.

In his very first attempt in the final, Sreeshankar made a strong start with 8.02 metres. By this time he was in second place, while there were two jumpers in first place with 8.08 metres. Then in the second attempt, Sreeshankar made a tremendous jump and became number-1 with a distance of 8.09 meters. His next two attempts were fouls and this is where he slipped. Jamaica’s Taze Gayle, who was in second place till now, snatched the first place by covering a huge distance of 8.15 metres. Sreeshankar could not overcome this in the next two attempts and had to be content with second place.

History created with second consecutive medal

With this, he became the first Indian to win a medal in long jump in the Commonwealth Games twice. In fact, last time in Birmingham in 2022, he also won the silver medal and at that time he was the first Indian to do so. However, then he had jumped 8.08 meters, whereas this time despite making slight improvement in it, he could not get the gold and missed the gold medal by just 6 seconds. Apart from Sreeshankar, Lokesh Satyanathan also participated in this final for India but his best jump was 7.97 meters and he stood fifth.