Murali Sreeshankar will be India’s biggest hope of winning a gold medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will begin in Glasgow on Thursday (July 23) and take place over 10 days till August 2. This marks a busy period for Indian track and field athletes as they have two major competitions within the space of two months, as the 2026 Asian Games will take place from 19th September in Aichi, Nagoya.
Murali won a silver medal in the previous edition of both multisport events, but they were held in separate years (2022, 2023). However, this time around, the two competitions are not just scheduled in the same year but also very close to each other.
This poses a tough challenge physically for all athletes as they need to reach performance levels twice in a very short period of time. The challenge is even bigger for Sreeshankar, who had a major injury hiatus following knee surgery in 2024 and only returned to action in 2025.
Answering a question from Sports Now during a virtual media interaction, Sreeshankar expressed confidence on his preparation and pointed out his impressive record in the 2024 season, where he has crossed the 8m mark in every competition has taken part in.
“The preparations have been on point, . I’ve recovered quite well after the surgery in 2024. 2025 was a very important season for me because I made the comeback. I had a couple of jumps above 8 meters. I just want to again be in my own groove which I felt really good in 2025 season. I’ve been at the World Championship. My main goal in 2025 was to be at the World Championship so that I set tone for the 2026 season which is exactly happening right now. And now in 2026, we have games in 10 days and in two and a half months, we have the Asian Games as well. So the preparations have been on point,” said Sreehsankar.
“It’s just about tweaking your preparation to make sure that you pick up at the right time. We are in discussion with my coach, my dad, and also my strength and conditioning coach, Dr. Wayne Lombard. We are in plans with Athletics Federation of India to make sure that our preparation is in point,” he added.
He also pointed out that the CWG and Asian Games were also in the same year in 2018, where he also was set to compete before an injury ruled him out of the former event in Gold Coast.
“So in 2018, we all had to prepare for two events at the same time. But there was quite good time in between because the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast happened in April and Asian Games happened in Jakarta in August. So there was a quite good time period in between both the events. But this time around, it is the gap of only like two to three months. So we have to plan and tweak our performances accordingly.
“And also the global standards have been high. But the main confidence for me going into the event is that physically I am in the best condition ever after surgery. Because during those days, I could work on a lot of factors which really helped me improve my physical conditions and qualities. So I’m really optimistic and looking forward for the events. Especially the CWG where the competition will be very high. So I’m pretty excited to go out there to Glasgow and give a good competition,” Sreeshankar stated.
Later in the interaction, the ace Indian athlete also opened up on his workload management technique and claimed recovery was the most important part. He admitted that his training methods have changed due to the knee injury.
“Workload related, it is very important now is recovery. I would say more than working hard, going all out every single day. The important thing of my training is more like recovery. So I basically train like five days a week. One day is an active recovery and one day I take complete rest. Because I can’t train like how I trained five years back because of my knee issue. And probably like there are obviously wears and tears in my body because I’ve been jumping for like probably like for the past eight years, about eight meters. So consider that you add 300 hours of training every year to your body. So obviously, there will be wear and tear. So you have to respect your body. You have to give a good recovery to your body to make sure that your body is taking the workload the next day,” said Sreeshankar.
“So that’s what a lot of the professional sport revolves around managing the recovery and training schedules. So now once the Commonwealth Games is done, I have to recalibrate, refocus, focus a good lot on recovery to make sure that I’m ready for the continental tour in Bhubaneswar. Then again, tweak up my preparations to make sure that I’m ready for the next international tournaments.
“And then after that, again, the Asian Games. So recovery plays a major role in that. And the main thing is that we have to peak at two different stages at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, which is like three months apart. So that shouldn’t be a problem. But the main thing is managing the workload towards that. So I shouldn’t overexert myself or I shouldn’t like underwork,” he explained.
Asian Games: The Priority?
Sreeshankar made an honest admission and claimed, for every athlete in the Indian contingent, it is the Asian Games that takes priority. The 2022 Hangzhou Games silver medallist pointed out that government rewards for a medal a the the continental showpiece multisport events are very lucrative. He also hailed the performances of other Indian track and field athletes in the 2026 season so far.
“For most of the athletes, the Asian Games is the primary focus for most of our Indian athletes. Because that’s where you make a career or you make a living out of because the government pays a really good, handsome amount in your pocket if you win a medal. And also the kind of incentives you get from the respective state governments, barring the Kerala government, is probably the best. And so the athletes have to be in their best shape. So last year we didn’t see so many national records being broken or so many great performances coming n,” Sreeshankar stated.
He also expressed hope of an impressive display by the entire Indian track and field delegation and pointed out the bright performances across disciplines by Indian athletes in 2026, with several national records being broken.
“But this season, all the athletes are totally committed and totally focused just for these two events, the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. Because you can make a good fortune out of it, actually. So the kind of performance standard, if you take a performance index of Indian athletics this year, it’s probably the best ever we have seen in every season so far. The Fed Cup in Ranchi and the Interstate meet in Bhubaneswar were like the marquee events. And we could see athletes showcasing incredible performances. And when we open social media, we can see the other country discussing about how Indian athletics has grown, especially in events like especially women’s long jump, I would say. Because Anju ma’am’s (Anju Bobby George) record, I never thought that that would be broken.
:But Ansi (Ansi Sojan) was phenomenal that day. She was in her own zone and she jumped consistently above 670 and breaking the record at 688. That is one of the historical feat by any women athletes because Anju ma’am is someone who performed similar to what Neeraj Chopra is doing in the Diamond League circuit right now.
And to break her record, it’s a magnification feat actually. And also Sarvesh bhai has 231 probably world standard Rohit did 87+. So all these events have… All these performances have shown that we are just capable of being at the best of the world.And it’s like I said before, it’s only like the last piece of the puzzle which is like emulating the same at the Global Championship. And also a lot of things depends on the conditions at that particular place. Because when we competed in Bhubaneswar, it was pretty much hot and humid which caused our body to be like in a very activated condition or probably you can say an aroused state,” Murali concluded.