Tejaswin Shankar’s waiting game culminates in bronze, India’s first-ever medal in CWG high jump

Birmingham, August 4

A last-minute addition to the athletics team, India high jumper Tejaswin Shankar made history with his bronze-winning feat at the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday.

He became the first Indian to win a men’s high jump medal at CWG. The national record-holder cleared 2.22 metres to finish third on countback. Donald Thomas of Bahamas and England’s Joel Clarke-Khan also cleared 2.22m but they needed multiple attempts to do it, while Shankar achieved that mark in his first attempt.

In the women’s shot put final, Manpreet Kaur finished 12th with a disappointing best throw of 15.69m.

2.30m barrier to overcome

The 2.30m height has become a barrier for me. It is one of my goals going forward. But right now I want to go back home and cherish this medal with my family as it has been a rollercoaster one and a half months for us. —Tejaswin Shankar

The 23-year-old Shankar could not soar over 2.25m in two attempts. He then went for 2.28m in his third and final attempt, bidding to win a silver, but failed.

Before Shankar, the best an Indian had achieved in men’s high jump at CWG was 2.06m, cleared by Bhim Singh in the 1970 edition in Edinburgh. “I had a long (US) collegiate season and started jumping in January but getting a bronze here is like a dream come true,” an elated Shankar said.

Shankar had finished sixth in the 2018 Gold Coast CWG with a best jump of 2.24m.

Shankar, who was added to the athletics squad on the orders of the Delhi High Court, has a season’s best of 2.27m and a personal best of 2.29m. Hamish Kerr of New Zealand won gold, while Australia’s Brandon Starc clinched silver. — PTI

Indians in action
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Athletics

Women’s 100m hurdles Rd 1: Jyothi Yarraji 3pm

Men’s 4x400m relay Rd 1 4pm

Women’s long jump qualifying: Ancy Sojan Edappilly 4:10pm Women’s 200m semifinals:

Hima Das 12:45am (sat)

Badminton

Women’s doubles Rd of 16: Jolly Treesa/Pullela Gayatri Gopichand Men’s doubles Rd of 16: Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty Women’s singles Rd of 16: PV Sindhu, Akarshi Kashyap

Men’s singles Rd of 16: Kidambi Srikanth 3pm onwards

Lawn bowls

Women’s pairs quarterfinals

India vs England 1pm

Hockey

Women’s semifinals: India vs Australia 10:30pm

Squash

Men’s doubles Rd of 16: Velavan Senthilkumar/Abhay Singh 5:15pm

Mixed doubles quarterfinals: Dipika Pallikal/Sourav Ghosal 12am (sat)

Table tennis

Mixed doubles Rd of 16:

G Sathiyan/Manika Batra

Mixed doubles Rd of 16: Achantha Sharath Kamal/Akula Sreeja; Women’s singles Rd of 16: Sreeja Akula, Reeth Tennison 2pm onwards

#CWG 2022