A leap of faith: Rudraneil Sengupta, on heartbreak before the Olympics

Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar has been knocked out by injury, weeks before the Paris Games. As he begins a painful recovery, we are rooting for his return.

For Murali Sreeshankar, April has been the cruellest month.

While training for the Paris Olympics with his father and coach S Murali one recent morning, the long jumper made an infinitesimally small error. “No! No!” a voice in his head screamed as he landed and felt a shooting pain in his knee. He could feel in his heart that something had gone horribly wrong, he would later say.

A few days and multiple tests later, it was confirmed. He had