CHENNAI<\/p>\n
The sixth leg of the Indian Athletics Series, beginning at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday and part of the 16-leg nationwide circuit running from April to September, will be a huge preparatory exercise for athletes like star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and others.<\/p>\n
The Athletics Federation of India has made participation mandatory in a minimum of two domestic meets to be considered for the National Federation Cup in Ranchi from May 22 to 25 (it is the final selection trials for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to be held in July-August). For the 27-year-old Sreeshankar the meet assumes significance and he is keen to perform well here.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeading up to Federation Cup and rest of the season, so obviously the target is to be in good shape for the main events including the CWG and Asian Games. I am looking forward to a good performance here,\u201d he told presspersons after his training session on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Sreeshankar, a silver medallist in the 2022 CWG, said the training stint recently in South Africa was quite competitive and is bound to help him in future events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trained for three weeks in the North West Academy of Sport in Potchefstroom, South Africa and did 8.12m in a meet in Pretoria. The cold weather in South Africa and Glasgow CWG will be similar, which might help me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n