India’s Tejaswin Shankar broke down in tears while speaking to the press in Glasgow. Tejaswin could not hold back as he explained why he was not able to participate in the men’s high jump event, where he was one of the favourites to win a medal.
The Birmingham 2022 bronze medallist came into the tournament in the form of his life. He had arrived in Glasgow believing he could win gold, or at the very least, add another Commonwealth Games medal to his collection.
Instead, his competition lasted just one jump.
TEJASWIN SHANKAR GETS INJURED
On Monday, Tejaswin’s knee buckled even before the competition started, and he was forced to stay away from the high jump event. Despite being listed as DNS (Did Not Start), Shankar had walked out for that solitary attempt in the final, hoping that he could somehow get through it.
He could not.
There was something particularly cruel about the sight. Tejaswin had come to Glasgow as one of India’s medal hopes in the high jump. Now, he was sitting beside the pit, watching an event he had hoped to dominate unfold without him.
“Every jumper manages some or the other injury. But it is one of those days. There are 365 days in a year, and this is the one day you do not want it (the injury) to flare up. And this is the day it stirred up,” Tejaswin said.
“I was really confident that I could jump for a win, or at least a medal. But to not do that, it really stings, because I was in really great shape. I was really confident of having a good day before my first jump.”
That was perhaps the hardest part for Tejaswin to accept. The injury was not something spectacular or completely unfamiliar. It was the sort of problem athletes learn to manage, particularly those who repeatedly put enormous stress on their knees.
“This injury nearly everyone has. It is just the overuse of your patella tendon. There is nothing spectacular about it. Every athlete manages it, I managed it. But it flared up today and ruined my whole day,” he said.
“I am just trying to console myself. I was so ready today, so excited.”
TJ GUIDES SARVESH KUSHARE
And yet, his night in the high jump was far from over. Tejaswin did not leave the competition after his injury. He stayed on the sidelines as his fellow Indians Sarvesh Kushare and Aadarsh Ram Jothi continued their battle in the final.
As Sarvesh negotiated the pressure of the final, Tejaswin stayed close, offering advice between attempts. At one stage, after Sarvesh had missed his first two attempts at 2.25m, Tejaswin suggested that his teammate skip the height altogether and go straight for 2.28m.
“Why don’t you skip this and try clearing 2.28m in one attempt? You will win gold,” Tejaswin told him.
Sarvesh chose not to take the gamble. He went again at 2.25m and cleared it on his final attempt.
Tejaswin could not clear a single bar for India that night. But from the sidelines, he was still trying to make sure his teammate did.
Eventually, Sarvesh went on to win silver, becoming the first Indian man to win a Commonwealth Games high jump medal better than bronze. The medal came after a remarkable year for the 31-year-old, who had earlier become the first Indian to clear 2.30m and break Tejaswin’s eight-year-old national record.
But while Sarvesh was fighting for a medal, Tejaswin was dealing with the sudden end of a competition he had believed could belong to him.
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Tejaswin has other events to compete in, including the decathlon, and he is determined to give himself every possible chance of returning to competition.
“I still have two days, I will try to come back, I will give my best and fix this. I am not here on vacation, I will start and then see what happens,” he said.
“This tendon is used more in long jump and high jump. If I can somehow manage those two events, I am confident that all the other events will be fine.”
It is an ambitious target, particularly with so little time for the tendon to recover. But Tejaswin was not ready to write off his Commonwealth Games campaign after one agonising night.
“The next two days I will try to fix this. I have the best people in my corner. I am confident that I can fix this,” he concluded.
– Ends
