World leader Jeswin pulls out of Lausanne Diamond League

The 21-year-old long jumper, the world’s top jumper this year, is likely to skip the Asian Championship too

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.

“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.