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With a Commonwealth Games (CWG) berth and a new national record, India’s star high jumper Tejaswin Shankar stole the show on Day 3 of the 22nd Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships 2018 held at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Patiala, Punjab. The 19-year-old jumped to 2.28m that eclipsed his earlier national record of 2.26m that he had set at the Junior National Championships two years ago.
With that effort, he also met the Athletics Federation of India (AFI)’s CWG qualifying standard of 2.25m to book his Gold Coast spot.
The teenager, who is studying business administration at the Kansas State University, made an inauspicious start to the competition with an unsuccessful attempt at 2.10m. But he started showing his immense potential soon afterwards as he crossed 2.14m, 2.18m, 2.25m and finally 2.28m for the coveted CWG spot.
The Delhi lad, who switched to high jump from cricket, targeted the 2.31m as well but could not pass the height on three attempts. That has made him more determined to achieve that height in Australia, as he said after his jump, “I need to get more consistent. I hope I will clear the 2.31m at the Commonwealth Games.”
Yadav and Suriya earn CWG tickets as well
Shankar wasn’t the only Indian to earn a CWG spot in high jump as the second-placed Siddharth Yadav too joined him. 25-year-old Yadav of Haryana had overcome a broken spine to accomplish the feat with a jump of 2.25m.
Yadav, whose previous best was 2.23m, produced the best jump of his career on Wednesday and was heaped lavish praise by his compatriot Shankar following the result.
Apart from the two high jumpers, L Suriya too bagged a CWG berth by clocking 32:23.96 seconds in women’s 10000m. With that, she easily met the AFI benchmark set at 32:30.00 seconds, just two days after an unsuccessful attempt in 5000m, where she won the gold as well.
Annu Rani won the women’s javelin throw with a distance of 57.37m but it was not enough to overhaul the AFI’s CWG qualifying standard of 62m.
