Tejaswin Shankar (C) rewrote his own high jump national record with an effort of 2.28m at the Federation Cup.
If you don’t find Tejaswin Shankar at the training ground, you will most likely find him in his room, glued to his mobile phone. The 19-year-old is not to be blamed. His string of impressive jumps has earned him countless admirers, keeping his handset flooded with messages. Wednesday was a busy day in particular for him on social media. The Delhi lad rewrote his own outdoor national record with a jump of 2.28m, improving on his previous mark of 2.26m set a couple of years ago. He also exceeded the Athletics Federation of India’s qualification mark for Commonwealth Games selection, which stood at 2.25m. Second-placed Sidharth Yadav of Haryana, too, made the CWG cut by jumping 2.25m, while Srineesh of Kerala finished third with a leap of 2.14m.
This, however, is not the first time Tejaswin has crossed the 2.28m bar. He achieved the mark last month at the Big 12 Indoor Athletics Championships in Ames, Iowa, against stiffer competition. At the ongoing Federation Cup, the mark fetched him a gold with ease but in the United States, the same mark had earned him just a bronze.
Right after finishing with the medal formalities and a dope test, Shankar rushed to his hotel room and logged himself online.
”I spend all my free time on social media. It just helps me unwind from my rigorous training schedule,” said Shankar, who re-tweeted a picture of him with the tag line, “social media keeda”.
”Initially, Sunil sir ( Shankar’s first coach) did not like me spending time on social media, but now he’s more active than me. He keeps posting stuff about me and so can’t complain about my habits anymore,” Shankar said cheekily.
Tejaswin flew back to India last week for this competition after spending six months at the Kansas State University where he’s pursuing a degree in business administration. Armed with a new double-handed technique and a much stronger and bulked-up body, Tejaswin didn’t find it too hard to leap over the 2.28m bar. He looked extremely close to achieving the 2.31 mark too.
”I think I got too excited. The idea of making such a massive jump on Indian soil did fluster me a bit. I need to work on that aspect. There is something about competing in India. It becomes a matter of prestige. I know, it’s all in the head!” said Shankar.
He has been following a pattern now. Two days before a competition, he cuts himself off completely. The social media accounts are logged in only to check the latest memes. Calls are avoided as much as possible.
”I tend to over-think. So I try my best not to think about my competitions. Sunil sir’s task is not to coach me any more. He’s with me to keep me distracted. In the last couple of days, we did not even utter a word about the competition. Room me akele memes dekh ke hasta rehta tha,” Shankar said.
The high jumper is very popular on social media. A Facebook page he created has over 3,500 likes. “Do din mein dekhna kitna badta hai,” he says. He regularly posts his videos on Instagram. Shankar is a genuine medal prospect at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Even a repeat of Wednesday’s performance could see him on the podium, but he’s aiming higher. ”I need to jump better than this otherwise what’s the point?”
Shankar will have a three-day break before returning to Kansas City and continue training there under coach Cliff Rovelto. He’s shown mark improvement under Rovelto and also made major changes to his technique. Ever since moving to the US, he has been performing consistently and made several 2.18-plus jumps.
Suriya makes 10k cut
Not making it to the Rio Olympics had hurt L Suriya so much that she almost quit the sport. But her coach Surinder intervened and asked to reconsider the decision. The runner agreed and her decision paid off on Wednesday as she made the cut for the CWG in the 10,000m event with 32:23s, seven second better than the AFI mark. “I missed the meet record at the Open Nationals by two seconds. If I had run extra harder in those 25 laps, perhaps I could have done it. I’ve worked very hard for this and I want to thank my brother and my coach for the constant motivation because I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Javelin thrower Anu Rani had a disappointing day as she managed a best throw of just 57.37m which was way off the AFI mark of 62m. Pushpa Jhakar (53.70) and Sharmila Kumari (53.53m) finished second and third respectively.
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