Vinay Kumar
BENGALURU: Tejaswin Shankar, riding on the back of his recent heptathlon gold at the Asian indoor athletics, is optimistic he will scale the 8000-point mark in decathlon at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.Speaking to TOI from Los Angeles, on his way back to Kansas City where he is pursuing Masters in kinesiology and exercise science and trains under coach Kip Janvrin, Tejaswin said clocking his personal best time of 7.11s in the 60m dash, the first of the seven events at Tianjin, gave him the indication that he can do well. Did it also set the tone for the remainder of a busy year ahead?
India’s elite all-round athlete, now eyeing the Asian Games gold (he won silver in Hangzhou three years ago), said the Tianjin gold — first continental title — is a huge confidence booster.“When you start off well in the first event, it sets the tone for the remaining action. The 60m in the heptathlon gives you a good indication of how the day is going to be. If you’re fast, springy and explosive, you know, ‘I’m going to have a good long jump and shot put.’ Getting a personal best there lifted my confidence. And that’s what happened in the long jump too, when I beat my indoor personal best.”“I knew that the training was going well. So now to be able to see that in a competition setting gives me good confidence. (Because) These are the same competitors that I will be competing with at the Asian Games,” he said.“See, we didn’t really tweak training to try and do well at Tianjin. And if I’m able to do this, then obviously once the training load reduces or we start preparing or tapering for competitions, I feel like I’ll be in much better shape,” he added.If he does make the cut and gets the Athletic Federation of India’s green signal, Tejaswin’s next international meet could be men’s high jump at the World indoors in Poland next month. “It’s not your ultimate goal for the year like the Commonwealth Games or the Asian Games, but I want to go for the high jump because at the World indoors, you can assess preparation and then do well,” he said.Talking about the late Sept event in Japan’s Aichi-Nagoya, Tejaswin obviously had a plan being worked out. “If you’ve gotten silver, the next thing you want is gold. That’s what I want to do at the Asian Games,” he said.“I just have to figure out the discus and javelin outdoors — the two additional events (from heptathlon) and then obviously put everything together,” he added.“The Commonwealth Games has a stronger field. I’m not gunning for medals there. That would be a great opportunity to score 8000 points for the first time. Because if I can figure out 8000 in that field, that will guarantee me a medal,” he said.Tejaswin was happy to continue breaking down his Tianjin performance. In the long jump, he said he went for safety. “I think my first one was a big jump, around 7.7-7.8m, but a marginal foul. That was when the second jump became more of a safe one, which was a good 7.53m.”“In shot put, I knew I had to be patient and put my weight behind the ball. In my last attempt, I got a good shot out — a season’s best of 13.63m.”It was his strongest event that gave him a mild scare – like every other time. The high jump remains his forte, and paradoxically, stays just as tricky. “This time, in the warm-ups, I felt my patellar tendonitis (jumper’s knee) acting up again. I was in excruciating pain. That was when the whole score (leading with 2492 points) flashed before my eyes. Not sure if I would be able to finish,” he said.“I took the first jump, the pain was there. It slowly started to reduce after the second. I cleared 2.23m on my third attempt. I think this is my best jump ever in a decathlon or a heptathlon. I had jumped 2.25 in my first heptathlon, but at that point I was a pure high jumper,” he said.“The pole vault (4.20m) was another good event,” he said, “All in all, it was about getting past the 6,000-point barrier. I missed that by seven points. I just have to move on and try and break the 8,000 point mark in the outdoor season.”
