High Jump: Tejaswin Shankar qualifies for NCAA Track and Field C’ship, hopes to maintain consistency

Tejaswin Shankar qualified for the United States’ NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in his first year competing at the Collegiate championships.

Shankar cleared 2.16 metres to qualify for the season-ending Championships to be held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, from June 6 to 9.

The 19-year-old bounced back from his Commonwealth Games disappointment to break the national record for the third time at the Texas Tech Corky/Crofoot Shootout on April 27, jumping 2.29 metres.

Discussing his performance at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where he finished sixth with a highest jump of 2.24 metres, Tejaswin said, “I felt it was a great show and coach [Cliff Rovelto] thinks I did well. I’ve been really consistent this year and that’s what I hope to carry forward in the few meets that are left.”

Indeed, this has been the best jumping season of Shankar’s career, as he has cleared 2.28 metres or higher three times and has jumped above 2.24 m six times.

Speaking about the experience of performing in front of 40,000 people for the first time at Gold Coast, Shankar agreed that it was something that caught him off guard, “That was definitely overwhelming. It got the best of me.”

“I feel I’m not MSD [M S Dhoni] to be as cool as a cucumber in that situation,” he adds, laughing. For the Kansas State sophomore, standing in the line-up with the likes of Robbie Grabarz, Donald Thomas and Chris Baker, whose videos he used to watch on YouTube, was actually ‘nerve-wracking’. “But yes, after the competition, I realised that even they are human beings after all.”

Going into the Championships with the best mark in the collegiate circuit in the United States at the moment, Shankar has additional challenges to negotiate after the NCAA year-end Championships.

With little time to rest, Shankar must travel to India and jump at the Inter-State Championships to be in Guwahati later in June, which will also double up as the qualifiers for the Asian Games.

For the 6 foot four inch high jumper from Delhi, the immediate focus will be on winning the NCAA Championships and cementing his reputation as one of the fastest-growing jumpers on the circuit. He could become the first Indian since Vikas Gowda won the discus title for North Carolina back in 2006.