India’s Eldhose Paul and Jesse Sandesh won a gold medal each at the Meeting de Limoges 2024 athletics meet in France on Saturday.
Competing in the men’s triple jump at the Stade de Beaublanc, Commonwealth Games champion Eldhose Paul leapt 16.24m to win the event. Marcel Mayack of Cameroon (15.80m) claimed the silver while Adem Boualbani of Algeria (15.79m) settled for the bronze.
The Indian athlete’s effort was short of the national record of 17.37m, set by Praveen Chithravel in Cuba last year, and the Olympic qualifying mark of 17.22m.
This was the 27-year-old’s Eldhose Paul’s second competition of the year. Last month at the Federation Cup in Bhubaneshwar, he leapt 16.59m in his season-opener. His personal best effort is 16.99m, achieved two years ago.
Later, Jesse Sandesh won the men’s long jump title in Limoges, a World Athletics Continental Tour challenger-level event.
The 28-year-old Sandesh recorded an effort of 2.18m to win the gold from the French duo of Nathan Ismar and Maxime Dubiez, who settled for silver and bronze, respectively, with a best jump of 2.14m each.
Sandesh’s jump was 11cm short of the national record of 2.29m, set by Tejaswin Shankar in 2018. It also did not meet the Olympic qualifying standard of 2.33m.
Jesse Sandesh’s personal best in the high jump is 2.24m, achieved last year. His season best is 2.21m, recorded in his season-opener in Graz, Austria last month.
However, athletes can also obtain a Paris 2024 Olympics athletics quota via the ranking route. The Olympic qualifying period ends on June 30.
In both the triple jump and high jump, 32 athletes will make the cut for each of the events for the upcoming Summer Games.