Jeswin Aldrin, the country’s No. 2 long jumper, will be in action in the top-class Spitzen Leichtathletik, a World Athletics Continental Tour silver event, in Lucerne on Tuesday.
Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.52m) and Simon Ehammer (8.45), the top two long jumpers in the world this year, former World champion Tajay Gayle and Commonwealth Games champion LaQuan Nairn are some of the stars competing in the meet in the Swiss city.
The 20-year-old Aldrin, the youngest long jumper in the meet and the Federation Cup champion, will be looking to regain the form that carried him to a personal best 8.26m (also a wind-aided 8.37m).
The qualification doors for next year’s World Championships, in Budapest, are now open and if Aldrin jumps 8.25m it will help him make the cut.
The Lucerne event will be his first meet after last month’s World Championships in Oregon (USA) where he could only manage 7.78m and failed to qualify for the final. The Tamil Nadu youngster will also be competing in the Golden Fly Series meet in Liechtenstein on September 11.
Aldrin and triple jumper Praveen Chithravel, who narrowly missed the bronze at the recent Commonwealth Games, are currently training in Europe but only the former will be doing competitions. The two jumpers are coached by Yoandri Betanzos , a former World Championships silver medallist in the triple jump, at the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport in Ballari.
