Abdulla Aboobacker secures triple jump title by centimetres at Almaty meet

AMALTY(Kazakhstan): Former Asian-level champion Abdulla Aboobacker fended off his competitors by mere centimetres as he secured the men’s triple jump title at the Qosanov Memorial 2025 athletics meet, being held in Kazakhstan on Sunday.

Aboobacker, also a Commonwealth Games silver medalist, secured the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze label (category C) athletics meet with the best attempt of 16.08 m at the Olympic Training Base.

The 29-year-old Indian athlete finished ahead of South Korea’s Yu Gyumin and Kim Jang-woo, both Asian Championships bronze medal winners. These two athletes registered identical best jumps of 16.07, but Yu Gyumin got the second spot on the basis of countback, as his second-best effort of 15.90m was way better than Kim Jang-woo’s 15.87m, as per Olympics.com.

Aboobacker, who levelled his personal best of 17.19 m this year in Bengaluru, stays in contention to qualify for Tokyo’s World Athletics Championships, which will kickstart from September 13 onwards.

The direct qualification mark is 17.22 m, and the Indian is in line to make it to the marquee tournament on the basis of world rankings. The qualification window will close on August 27.

Praveen Chitravel, who levelled the national record of 17.37m in the men’s triple jump earlier this year, has qualified for the world championships.

On the other hand, Murali Sreeshankar kept his winning streak going in the men’s long jump at the same competition on Saturday. The 26-year-old, who was returning from a knee injury that caused him to miss the Paris Olympics 2024, reached 7.94 m in his opening attempt, securing his third straight win of the season. Not in line to qualify for the championships on the basis of rankings, he will be aiming to surpass the required standard of 8.27 m before the end of the qualification period. (ANI)