Lone Bihar athlete Sunny Kumar looking forward to compete with idol Murali Sreeshankar

BHUBANESWAR: Long jumper Sunny Kumar, who will be competing at the Bronze level Continental Tour at Kalinga Stadium here, is the only athlete from Bihar to take part in the competition.It’s the first international competition for the 24-year-old and he got the chance courtesy of a 7.90m jump that he achieved at the Indian Open Athletics meet held at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru in June.

He even achieved a mark of 7.80m at the Indian Open Jumps Competition but his big target now is to break the 8m mark.But for now, he is just looking forward to competing with Murali Sreeshankar, whom he idolises. “I had competed with him when I was in my juniors but this will be my first as a senior and it’s going to be really special,” said Sunny on Saturday.Asked what it is that he likes about the Commonwealth Games silver-medalist, Sunny said, “He has a great mindset.

It always seems he can achieve anything. And his running is just mind-blowing. I have also been training with him for a while and watching him train only gave me goosebumps.”However, on Sunday, rather than being awestruck by Murali, Sunny will need to focus better on his own jumps. Asked where he will need to work on in the coming days, the Bihar athlete said, “I need to work on my technique as far as my landing is concerned.

It’s not always consistent because of which I am unable to achieve the maximum distance.”While he has been working on these aspects under coach Bhupinder Singh in Trivandrum over the past two years, he credited his first coach Mukesh Kumar Singh in helping him build the foundation when he first started out in 2018 at Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna.“He trained me really well and built a very good foundation thanks to which I can do all the advanced training quite easily,” added the Begusarai resident, who will next take part in the Inter-State Athletics meet later this month.Asked what made him take up the sport, Sunny, meanwhile, added, “I used to take part in the school athletics meets regularly. Later after shifting to Patna for high schooling, I thought of taking up the sport because I felt that I am made for this. I did a lot of research and eventually chose the long jump.”Meanwhile, although he is the only one from the state to be competing in this event, he believes his feat will inspire many others in Bihar to take up the sport and excel. But his big target is to make it to the Asian Games next year. Considering how he has gone from 7.17m that he achieved in April last year to 7.90m this year, it doesn’t seem impossible at all.