Leaps of faith: Long-jumper M Sreeshankar on winning, losing, training with dad

There is none of the angst here of Yuvraj Singh’s bond with his father (the cricketer has often spoken of how his first loves were skating and tennis); none of the rage that defined the training regimen that Andre Agassi’s father enforced.

Instead, when Sreeshankar won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (after a heartbreaking 1cm foul cost him gold), he was relieved, he says, because it was vindication of his dad’s belief.

Sreeshankar and Murali, who is a former triple-jumper himself, had a devastating Olympics run last year. Then 21, he qualified by breaking his own national record with an 8.26m jump. But then his form plummeted, to such a degree that the Athletics Federation of India, which had been insisting he join the national camp, demanded that he clear a fitness trial. He struggled to cross 7.50m at that trial. At the Olympics, he managed only 7.69m and didn’t qualify for the final.

“I was physically exhausted,” Sreeshankar says. “My fitness levels were so poor that I was not even able to lift weights or train properly. It was muscle fatigue. Doctors told me I had asymptomatic Covid-19 in April. I didn’t get the time to rebuild.”

“There was a lot of criticism. My entire family suffered. Everywhere I went, people asked me, ‘What happened in Tokyo?’ People would even stop my mother (KS Bijimol; a former international middle-distance runner) to ask her ‘What is the way forward?’”

His father was repeatedly asked why he wouldn’t let his son train under a better coach. “But it’s not actually his decision. It is my decision, and I never considered seeking another coach. Nobody knows my body better than my father. His training programmes suit me. He knows what I need, and I trust his methods,” Sreeshankar says.

So CWG was vindication. The silver medal “was a big relief for me and my dad. Yes, I was disappointed that we could not get gold but now I have my first-ever global medal. In the major meets I have been missing medals every single time, so this one means a lot.”

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Back home in Kerala, the family speaks of how their Olympic dream was born when Sreeshankar was a boy. “From a young age I showed good progress, with training and technique,” he says. “I started with a vision. My dad told me ‘Start with a vision of winning an Olympic medal’.”

By 18, Sreeshankar was nearing the 8m mark. The following year, in 2018, he set a national record (8.20m). By 2020, there was little challenge left at domestic level.

Murali, a chief reservation supervisor with Southern Railway, took spells of leave at pivotal points to coach his son, and sometimes to help him cope with the disappointments of losing.

At one point, the young Sreeshankar lost hope, wanted to give it all up and pick another career. “I told him to trust his abilities and we would come back strong,” Murali says. After the Olympics too, when the young man had lost his explosive strength, “we focused on strengthening and rehab.” It can be tough being coached by one’s father, Sreeshankar says. “You can feel like you’re being monitored all the time. Also, there is the pressure that if I don’t perform my father will be criticised. But the positives outweigh all this.”

In the six months after Tokyo, Sreeshankar and his father focused on rebuilding. They worked on strength, speed, power, balance; fine-tuned technique. At his first domestic competition after the Olympics, an impressive 8.17m jump set the tone for what would become Sreeshankar’s most successful season. He broke the national record (8.36m), then won at the International Jumping Meeting in Greece (8.31m).

The World Championships didn’t go as expected; Sreeshankar finished seventh. “My father had realistic expectations at the Worlds. But for me, it took two or three days to digest the fact that 8.16m fetched bronze. It was well within my reach.”

In Birmingham again, his first three jumps didn’t go well. The fourth jump was ruled a foul by the smallest of margins (a 1cm step over the line), and then he landed the silver with his fifth attempt (8.08m).

The family now has a renewed sense of mission. “We are working towards Paris 2024,” Murali says. “He will do much better. Since his childhood, he has been hard-working and dedicated. I never had to push him. As a father I am satisfied.”

The one thing that keeps them centered and motivated, they add, is Bijimol. “My mother is the most important. She has sacrificed a lot. When I am down after a hard day’s workout, I go to her,” Sreeshankar says. “She understands me and she will tell me how my father is feeling too. There’s a balance only she can provide. It keeps both of us going.”