ahmedabad long jumper murali sreeshankar considers the commonwealth games silver medal as a breakthrough in his career and says the podium finish in birmingham has provided him the perfect impetus to lift his performance to the next levelsreeshankar clinched the silver in mens long jump in this years birmingham cwg with an effort of 808mhe is representing kerala at the national games which started with the table tennis event in gujarat on tuesdaythe season has been a great learning experience for me i have been competing since march and to maintain the kind of performance till augustseptember honestly it was very difficult there was a lot of travelling we had to adjust to various climatic conditions and then competing with the best in the world he said in a virtual press conference on tuesdayi had a kind of breakthrough in my career with the silver medal at the commonwealth games my ranking has also improved a lot i was somewhere around 60s when the season was about to begin from here i have to build paris olympics is just two years away and i am sure i will be able to build from heresreeshankar said featuring consistently at top international events like the diamond leagues will be his focus going forwardnext season i am expecting to be more consistent in the international circuit more frequent in the diamond league circuit to get there at the top is difficult but i am sure it is possible with more international exposure he saidasian games cwg national games all these competitions are build up towards the paris olympics medals in these events will definitely boost my morale ahead of paris i want to continue the same momentum in the asian gamesthe 23yearold long jumper from palakkad in kerala is expecting a tough competition in the national games especially in jump eventsfor jumpers the national games is not a cake walk we have three jumpers above 815we have to think every national championships like a world level tournament because the competition is very high the domestic circuit is highly competitive we have to be at our level best he saidwe are really excited about the national games because it is my first and is happening after a long gap of seven yearsfor us national games is as important as any other major tournament because its the biggest sporting spectacle in the country all athletes will be meeting at the same place and celebrate indian sportssreeshankar feels a good performance in the national games will be of immense help to him ahead of next seasoni am continuing the same training programme for the asian games also i believe solid performance here will help me plan my season betteri do have my targets but the most important thing for me here is to enjoy the competition because the season has been pretty long and i want to finish the season on a very good note my body is feeling really good i am giving priority to