Jeswin Aldrin.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
Jeswin Aldrin, from Mudalur in Thoothukudi, is the world’s top long jumper this year
It’s an event which was dominated by legends like Jesse Owens, Bob Beamon, Carl Lewis and Mike Powell. Things are very different in the long jump now. And a quick look at the long jump entry list for this month-end’s Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, made one shiver in excitement.
For the first time, Indians are world leaders in the long jump this year with Jeswin Aldrin (8.42m) and M. Sreeshankar occupying the top two rungs in the World Athletics’ list and both figure in the entry list for Lausanne which was put up on Wednesday night.
But one’s joy was short-lived.
“No, he isn’t,” Manisha Malhotra, JSW Sports’ Head of Sports Excellence, told The Hindu when asked whether Jeswin would be doing the Lausanne event on June 30.
Jeswin’s world-leading jump came at the Indian Jumps Open in Ballari on March 2 and he had an 8.06m in a Cuban meet on May 13 but his performance started slipping badly after that. He was down with Covid and it played havoc with his jumping. He did a 7.85m in Athens on May 24 and then a 7.66m in another meet at Chania, in Greece, four days later.
A catch-up situation
“In his last week in Cuba he had recovered and competed there so we thought he was fine but then the travel to Greece completely left him weak and since then it has been a catch-up situation,” said Manisha.
Just when the 21-year-old from Mudalur, in Thoothukudi, appeared to be flying high came the hard blow.
“It took a toll on my body. But everything is better now, I’ve recovered from it,” said Jeswin from the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport, his training base in Ballari, on Thursday.
“We are slowly building everything that we lost and the focus is to be in the best shape in major championships,” said the National record-holder Jeswin, who took the silver (7.98m) after finishing behind Sreeshankar at the recent Inter-State Nationals in Bhubaneswar.
Now, the plan is not to push Jeswin too much immediately.
“He is better overall but this isn’t something we can rush. Pushing now will just cause something to break down and the idea is to have him ready for the World Championships (Budapest, from Aug. 19, he has already qualified for the event),” explained Manisha.
Does that mean Jeswin will skip next month’s Asian Championships in Bangkok?
“Yes, most probably. Not sure yet,” she said.