History: High jumper Tejaswin Shankar opens up about emerging from a cloud of uncertainty to jumping to CWG glory

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tejaswin Shankar sounds contented. After all, the high jumper has had to go through a lot of trials and tribulations, including dragging the Athletics Federation of India to the court to earn his Commonwealth Games squad ticket despite achieving the qualification standard. Despite getting a favourable direction from the court, the 23-year-old had to anxiously wait to see whether the organisers would take into consideration a late request from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to include him. It only happened after the second time of asking. However, once in Birmingham, Shankar shut all the outside noise and won the biggest medal of his career, a bronze with a best effort of 2.22 metres. Currently in Varanasi at his grandparents’ house, Shankar spoke to The Tribune about his emotions, the drama before the Games and relief after winning a medal. Excerpts:

Now that you have won a medal, can you piece together your thoughts about how you were feeling about all the confusion about your participation at the Commonwealth Games?

My path to this medal was different than most. The lead-up to the Games was far from ideal. There was a lot of uncertainty. I did not know whether I was going or not. Normally a week before an important event, athletes know what goals they want to achieve. I was not even thinking on those lines. My physical preparations were fine, I had been training well for over 4-5 years. The physical groundwork was there, I was fit. Before major tournaments, there is no room for error as every jump counts. You do not go there just to participate but to be competitive. Like I said, my lead-up was far from ideal but once I was in Birmingham, I was welcomed by my teammates as nothing had happened and it got easier.

Before leaving, you had told us that you will not be sure of your participation until you take your first jump. Describe how you felt when you were getting ready for that first jump, and how you had prepared.

My final was slated to be held at 7 pm. I got my massages and recovery sessions done to get ready. The bus was to leave for the venue at 4 pm. Normally on the day of competition, you think about your expectations but that day it was all about ‘I want to prove that person wrong’. So I logged into Netflix to get away from such thoughts. I was not thinking about track & field or high jump. Anyway, we made our way to the warm-up area at around 6 pm. Once in the playing field, the thought was all about what happens today. I knew that it gets cold around evening in Birmingham and as athletes we would have to sit for longer periods for our next attempts after 3-4 jumps. So I knew this would be a low jumping final. The key for me was to keep a clean card and to clear the initial bars in the first attempt. So my first jump was set at 2.10m and on my way up I hit the bar. I thought ‘pehle jump mein panauti ho gya (Jinxed on the first jump!). Thankfully, the bar did not drop. It was a lucky break for me. After that the butterflies in my stomach settled and I started to work the crowd. I realised that I was getting tense and used the crowd to shift my tension on the other competitors. I even sat next to them and chatted. It worked as after the first jump, I cleared all my initial bars in the first attempt.

Lets’ come to the point when the medal was assured. What was the feeling?

The medal was assured after Donald Thomas failed to clear 2.22m. I went to clear 2.28m as I had to go for gold. I had won a lot of medals with this strategy. I had a chance to win gold and I went for it. It did not happen but then it was a big relief as we accomplished something that we had worked hard for. After two seconds I saw my coaches and teammates with the Indian flag. Emotions took over. I had a chance but I failed in my last attempt, but I was happy that I was going back with a medal.

There was a lot to cheer for India in track & field. Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker won gold and silver in triple jump. Murali Sreeshankar won a silver in long jump. How do you see India’s performance at CWG?

I will put it down to Neeraj Chopra. He has changed our mindset. I and many others have trained around him. He has inspired us to believe that we can be competitive. What I saw in Birmingham was that every athlete came with a plan. They had a set of goals to achieve and they did not have ready excuses to blame anybody. That being said, I do not want to be the one to kill this buzz but the competition in some of the events was weak as many of the stars were missing. Even in my event, a few of the guys who could have easily jumped 2.25m missed the CWG because they had given their all at the World Championships in Eugene. It paved for me and many others to win medals.

You have trained in the US since 2017. Do you think there is a difference in coaching philosophy in comparison to India? How different is it?

During my time there, I learned to value the time away from sports. One does not need to train for 6-7 hours, an intense three-hour session is enough. I used to get a week’s training plan a week in advance, not like deciding on the day depending on how your body was responding. They gave us an end goal for every day. Once that was achieved, I would stop training. Here in India sometimes I was training for more hours but I was mostly chatting and wasting time.

You have talked about your plans to compete in decathlon at the Asian Games. How did this come about?

It all started with the baseline testing where you have to complete a set of tasks, including a 45-second dash followed by a 15-second dash. My coach was impressed and I was out as a reserve in the 4×400 relay squad. It was a good thing as I would get to do something else other than high jump. Interest bana raha. Then I was diagnosed with tendinitis in my knee, which was impacted by jump training to the point that I couldn’t train daily. I was asked to do hurdles, long jumps to supplement my training. Then I started to explore shot put, discus and javelin. I started decathlon last year in April and I came within 50 points of breaking the national record. So I have decided to give it a shot.

What are your plans leading up to the Asian Games?

Currently I am enjoying my time in Varanasi. I had to show this medal to my Naana and Naani. I have been busy attending felicitations and collecting cheques. It may be construed as a complaint, but let me tell you that I wanted to do all this. Soon it will all settle down and I will head to the US, where I have to start a new job. Once there I will go back to my ‘saint’ ways and will train to get physically fit and start afresh.