New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) Star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar clinched his third straight title after coming back from a long injury lay-off as he won the event at the Qosanov Memorial Athletics Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Saturday. The 26-year-old Indian produced a winning leap of 7.94m on his opening attempt to secure the top spot at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze label (category C) meet. His other efforts were 7.73m, 7.58m, 7.57m, 7.80m and 7.79m. He has a personal best of 8.41m. This was Sreeshankar’s third competition since returning from a knee injury, which he suffered in April last year. He had undergone surgery and consequently missed the 2024 Olympics despite qualifying for the global showpiece in the French capital. Sreeshankar won the Indian Open in Pune with a jump of 8.05m jump in his first comeback competition and followed it up with a 7.75m effort to top the podium at the Meeting Maia Cidade do Desporto in Portugal. Before injury, Sreeshankar’s last international appearance was a silver-medal finish at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2023. He is yet to qualify for the Tokyo World Championships in September, for which the men’s long jump qualification standard is 8.27m. PTI PDS PDS KHS