Tejaswin Shankar
Shankar in August 2022
Personal information
Born (1998-12-21) 21 December 1998
Delhi, India
Height6 ft 4 in (193 cm)[1]
Weight81 kg (179 lb)
Sport
CountryIndia
Event(s)High jump, Decathlon
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)Outdoor: 2.29 m NR (Lubbock 2018)
Indoor: 2.28 m (Ames 2018)
Decathlon:7648 points (Arizona 2023)
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  India
Men's Decathlon
Asian Games
Silver medal – second place 2022 HangzhouDecathlon
Asian Athletics Championships
Bronze medal – third place2023 BangkokDecathlon
Men's High jump
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal – third place2022 BirminghamHigh jump
South Asian Games
Silver medal – second place2016 Guwahati/Shillong High jump
Commonwealth Youth Games
Gold medal – first place2015 ApiaHigh jump

Tejaswin Shankar (born 21 December 1998) is an Indian athlete who competes in the decathlon event. He holds the high jump national record of 2.29 metres set in April 2018.

Early and personal life

Shankar was born on 21 December 1998 in Delhi into a Tamil family. He hails from Saket in South Delhi. He studied at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in New Delhi, where he played cricket until eighth grade before his physical education teacher suggested he switch to high jump. He soon started winning medals at inter-school athletics meets. His father Harishankar, a lawyer, died of blood cancer in 2014.[1]

Shankar received a four-year athletics scholarship to the Kansas State University in 2017 where he studied business administration.[2] In what is perceived as an unconventional career choice for an active athlete, he has a corporate career in the US, where he works for Deloitte.[3] He quit this job to focus on being a "full-time athlete".

Career

Shankar won the gold medal at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in Apia, setting a Games record of 2.14 metres. He won silver at the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati with a leap of 2.17 metres.[1] Due to a groin injury, he finished sixth at the Asian Junior Championships and missed the 2016 World Junior Championships.[4]

At the age of 17, Shankar rose to prominence when he broke Hari Shankar Roy's 12-year-old national record of 2.25 metres with a jump of 2.26 metres at the Junior National Championships in Coimbatore in November 2016.[5] He was the third best IAAF junior high jumper in the world that year.[6] He was bedridden for six months in 2017 with a slipped disc.[7]

In January 2018, Shankar broke Roy's indoor national record with a mark of 2.18 metres, and then bettered it by a centimetre the same month. In February, he further improved on his indoor record with a 2.28 metres leap at the Big 12 Indoor Athletics Championships in Ames.[8]

Shankar finished sixth at the 2018 Commonwealth Games during qualification for the games Shankar bettered his own national record by jumping 2.28 metres at the 22nd Federation Cup Indian Championships in Patiala in March 2018. It was the joint-best performance to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.[9][10] He further broke his national record by another centimeter representing K-State athletics, jumping 2.29m in April 2018 at the Texas tech invite.

Shankar, who was not initially selected in the 2022 Commonwealth Games contingent despite meeting the qualification standard, took the Athletics Federation of India to court and was later brought in as a replacement. He secured the bronze medal at the event in Birmingham with a jump of 2.22 metres; this was India's first ever high jump medal at the Commonwealth Games.[11]

He switched to the decathlon and won a Bronze at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships in July. He then bettered the decathlon Indian National Record by 6 points in October 2023, to finish second at the 2022 Asian Games, earning a Silver medal.

He intends to qualify as a high jumper for the 2024 Paris Olympics, then making the move to the decathlon permanant.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Koshie, Nihal (25 December 2016). "Tejaswin Shankar is India's high jump hope". The Indian Express. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "Record breaker Delhi high jumper Tejaswin Shankar idolises Sehwag". Asianet India. 7 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "'There's Much More to Life than Sport'". Open The Magazine. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  4. ↑ Pritam, Norris (13 November 2016). "Tejaswin Shankar's journey from budding cricketer to high jump national record holder". Firstpost. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Tejaswin Shankar breaks senior national record". Deccan Chronicle. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Rayan, Stan (2 March 2018). "Leap of faith". The Hindu. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  7. ↑ Srinivasan, Aneesh (18 July 2017). "Despite career-threatening injury, Tejaswin Shankar sets meet record". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "Tejaswin Shankar breaks national high jump record, grabs bronze at Big 12 indoor championships". scroll.in. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  9. ↑ "Result - Men's High Jump Final". Gold Coast 2018. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  10. ↑ Selvaraj, Jonathan. "Tejaswin Shankar equals (own) national record to book Commonwealth berth". ESPN.in. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Commonwealth Games 2022: Tejaswin Shankar wins high jump bronze after court battle for selection". India Today. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
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