CHENNAI: There is bad news in the athletics camp. Long-jumper M Sreeshankar is out of the Paris Olympics. The 25-year-old athlete had been training for the season at Palakkad and was expected to leave for Shanghai to compete in the Suzhou Diamond League, the first of many competitions he was planning to enter this season. His ultimate goal was the Paris Olympics, for which he had qualified last year.

The Asian Games silver-medallist had been training very hard for the Olympics and was feeling great as well. Until Tuesday morning, he and his father and coach, S Murali, were chalking out plans for the season. By evening, things had changed. After Suzhou DL, they were supposed to head to Doha DL and were thinking of a training stint abroad. And they were even targeting the senior inter-state nationals as well.

However, things have not gone according to plan. Everyone in his camp is distraught. Sreeshankar hurt his knee during regular training on Tuesday evening and has since been ruled out of the Paris Games. After numerous tests and discussions, experts have advised surgery on his knee. His dream has turned into a ‘nightmare’.

“Unfortunately, in what feels like a nightmare, but is a reality, my Paris Olympics dream is over. I suffered a knee injury during training on Tuesday, and after all the tests and consultations later, it’s been decided that I would need surgery, ruling me out of the one single thing I’ve chased relentlessly all these years,” he wrote on social media.