The goal is to achieve 2.33mark for Olympics qualification: Tejaswin Shankar

Last year, Tejaswin Shankar chose to stay in the United States and fine tune his high jump. The NCAA circuit was suspended due to the pandemic and Tejaswin, who is pursuing a bachelors’ course in accountancy from the Kansas State University on a sports scholarship, had no competition to test his preparedness for the Tokyo Olympics qualification mark.

One of India’ best emerging athletes, all Tejaswin could do was wait for the indoor season to start. So, when the NCAA inter collegiate meets kicked off recently, Tejaswin hit the top gear straightaway. In fact, he is the only Indian track and field athlete to get competition under his belt in recent times. Last week, the 22-year-old competed in heptathlon -- after learning to hold a pole a month ago -- at the DeLoss Dodds invitational in Manhattan, Kansas. He totalled 5650 points, which is more than PJ Vinod’s national mark (5561) set at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha in 2008.

However, it is the bigger goal of achieving the qualifying mark of 2.33m for the Tokyo Games that Tejaswin is chasing. The national record holder (2.29m) in high jump believes combined events competition will strengthen his high jump.

From April onwards, Tejaswin says he will focus his energies towards Tokyo Olympics qualification. The Indian season will begin with the Grand Prix in February followed by the Federation Cup from March 15.

“The dates of Federation Cup clashes with the indoor national championship here, so like every year I have the same conflict. If dates remain the same, I won’t be able to come to India but I will probably try the inter-state meet in June, which will be the last qualifier,” says Tejaswin, who last represented India at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.

Yet to turn professional, Tejaswin has not been able to participate in major international meets because of his education. “Had I been a pro athlete I could have travelled to Europe and played in certain meets for points for rankings. But as a college athlete, I can’t travel much for meets (to qualify through ranking). My only option is to get the entry standard in an IAAF event.

“The international scene is still not clear. I wanted to participate in Asian Championships but that got cancelled. So, from April onwards I will put all my focus and energy towards high jump qualification. I will have three solid months to focus on jumping at a high level, that’s when I plan to make the mark,” he says.

Tejaswin cleared 2.25m to top the high jump during the heptathlon event last week in Manhattan. The other events he competed in were long jump, 60m dash and 60m hurdles, 1000m, shot put and pole vault, collecting a total of 5650 points for a meet record.

“The first step is to become a strong, and robust athlete. When I came here this is the first thing my coach told me- to see the big picture. He said it is always good to have a broad base and do multiple things. That’s how I started helping the team in pentathlon, and now heptathlon.”

Tejaswin breaks down how combined events can help him in his high jump.

“The 1000m can build endurance which can sustain you in hot conditions. The long jump and hurdles really translate well into high jump because the last three steps are pretty much the same. While shot put is more an indicator of raw power, and you have to be strong and powerful for high jump too. Yes, a lot of people are skinny but ultimately it comes down to body weight to power ratio.”

Unlike other Indian track and field athletes who have not competed for a year now, Tejaswin is fortunate to get a few competitions.

“I am a little bit lucky that way -- I am getting competition here. Back home they do not even have that opportunity. They will start with the GP series. Training is one thing and training towards a competition is a completely different ball-game,” he says.

“One thing I have learnt from COVID is that you shouldn’t wait for opportunity, just grab it. I want to make the most of competition meets here. At this point my only goal is to achieve a 2.33 mark, Olympics or no Olympics.”

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