Indoor National Record Holder Long Jumper Jeswin Aldrin Eyes Consistency This Season

After setting an indoor national record at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, long jumper Jeswin Aldrin is chasing consistency in lead up to the major tournament's lineup later this year.

Aldrin created a new indoor national record in the long jump after registering a jump of 7.93m in his second attempt to better his own national record of 7.93m which came in the qualification round.

Last year at the National Games in Gujarat, the Tamil Nadu jumper made the cut for the World Championships 2023 with a jump of 8.26m.

He made his world championships debut in July last year where his best effort was 7.79m and finished 20th in the 32-man field.

"I gained experience from star jumpers like Miltiadis Tentoglou and Maykel Masso. I saw them jumping and learnt a lot from them," Aldrin shared his 2022 world championships experience.

"Now, I'm just working on staying consistent this season to be able to jump an 8.20m, 8.30m consistently," Aldrin told IANS.

Aldrin ended 2022 on a high, he had pipped India's outdoor national record holder Murali Sreeshankar to win the Federation Cup in April last year with a wind-assisted 8.37m jump. He notched 8.26m at the same competition to qualify for the world athletics championships.

However, his performance dipped since then as he failed to hit the 8m mark in the next three competitions. Subsequently, Aldrin was initially axed from the Indian squad for the world championships.

Days after the snub, he was asked to appear for the two selection trials in July. Though Aldrin failed to cross the 8m mark, he was selected for the world championships after producing jumps of 7.99m and 7.93m.

Aldrin then crossed the 8m mark for the first time since Federation Cup in April at the Golden Fly Series Liechtenstein, where he emerged victorious 8.12m-jump to end the season on a positive note.

The 21-year-old athlete, who is currently training under Yoandris Betanzos -- the former triple jumper and a two-time World Championships silver medallist, shared how Betanzo's training helped him to stay focused.

"He (Yoandris Betanzos) shares stories about how he won those medals and it's been really helping me mentally. He ask me to stay calm during the competitions; 'it's just the same as you're doing in training so, don't put more pressure on yourself, 'you're doing good in training just do the same in competitions and it will be good'," Aldrin said.

"He tells us not to put pressure, always enjoy and have fun competing. He himself shows us the technique; how to do it in the training. He's very old, but he still does every technical thing, we even can't do that properly. And it shows why he's the best. It really helps us mentally to train under him," he added.

Elaborating more about his training regime, Aldrin said: "I'm working on my rhythm, my running approach. It's sometimes it's very fast, sometimes very slow and sometimes I hesitate a little bit. So, I'm just working on it and trying to be consistent every time even in competition."

"He tells us not to put pressure, always enjoy and have fun competing. He himself shows us the technique; how to do it in the training. He's very old, but he still does every technical thing, we even can't do that properly. And it shows why he's the best. It really helps us mentally to train under him," he added.

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