new delhi indias premier longjumper m sreeshankar on tuesday rued his withdrawal from the upcoming diamond league owing to visarelated issues saying he was extremely keen to go up against olympic champion miltiadis tentoglou in stockholmsreeshankar was forced to pull out of the prestigious tournament starting june 30 in sweden as his passport was held up at the us embassy in new delhi for visa processing for next months world championship at oregonthe national record holder has said that while participation in the diamond league would have allowed him to finetune his preparations for the world championships not being there wouldnt necessarily affect him since the worlds is his first priorityunfortunately the visa situation meant that i had to withdraw from the upcoming diamond league in stockholm i was extremely keen on taking part in that event especially against the current olympic champion miltiadis tentoglou sreeshankar said during a video interactioninterestingly both sreeshankar and tentoglou achieved a jump of 836m this yearparticipation in the diamond league would have definitely placed me in a better position before the world championships in july that said on the flip side i am now going to get more time for preparing myself for the world championships which has always been my first priority and also the commonwealth games he addedthe 23yearold kerala athlete had won a gold medal earlier this month with a sensational jump of 795m at venizeleiachania 2022 athletics meet in greece he said that the focus right now is to better his personal record and give his absolute best at the world championshipdespite the fact that i had to withdraw from the diamond league i have been working hard and i am extremely confident of bettering my own personal record at the world championships the event will have several highprofile athletes but i am ready to give my best sreeshankar saidthe 18th edition of the world championships is scheduled to be held from july 1524reflecting on his recent performances sreeshankar said that olympic champion neeraj chopra has taught him a great deal on how hard work shapes an athletei am quite sure that my recent performances will make me a better athlete in the future but it is neeraj chopras relentless hard work that has taught me a great deal he makes every event his own and never succumbs under pressure his olympic goldwinning feat has had a huge impact on indian athletes including me sreeshankar statedafter my performance at the tokyo olympic games my confidence level sunk to an alltime low but it was neeraj chopras historic feat that helped me realise that i can also my make country proud in a similar way he said