‘TJ told me to move on’: How an injured Tejaswin Shankar put aside his heartache to help Sarvesh Kushare write CWG history | Commonwealth Games News
New Delhi: Tejaswin Shankar’s Commonwealth Games campaign ended in heartbreak, but the Indian high jumper maintained that his disappointment did not stop his teammate from making history.The national record holder, who was forced out of the men’s high jump due to a recurring knee injury, remained on the field to help his compatriot. Sarvesh Koshary From the margin. The advice proved crucial as Kochhar overcame a shaky start to clinch the silver medal – India’s best ever result in the event at the Commonwealth Games.Tejaswin had won a historic bronze at the 2022 Birmingham Games, the country’s first high jump medal at the Commonwealth Games. But on Monday, the 27-year-old’s title hopes were dashed before they had even really begun.
From medal contender to coach on the sidelines
Tejaswin suffered severe pain in his knee during the warm-up and was unable to continue after only passing his opening height.Instead of leaving the arena, he remained next to the competition area, closely monitoring Kosari’s attempts and providing technical input that helped the Indian recover after struggling mid-event.Kochhar revealed that Tejaswin’s timely advice changed his competition.“I wanted to clear the height on my first attempt itself, but at 2.25m my rhythm suffered and my stride became shorter. Then TJ asked me to go ahead in the warm-up, and that helped me,” Kuchar said after winning the silver medal.The medal improved on the efforts of Birmingham’s bronze medalist Tejaswin and marked India’s best ever Commonwealth Games finish in the men’s high jump.
“It’s really sour.”
A visibly emotional Tejaswin admitted that the injury happened at the worst possible moment.He said: “I felt severe pain in my knee. It happened during the warm-up. This is nothing new; I have always suffered from tendinitis in my knee.” “I don’t think there’s any high jumper who doesn’t have it. That’s why it’s called the jump knee. Everyone runs it, me too.”The timing of the outbreak of events made the disappointment difficult to accept.“But it’s one of those days. You only want one day a year where you don’t feel that pain, but it came just on that day. It really hurts. In those conditions, I was really confident that I could jump to win, jump to get a medal. I really knew I could win a medal,” he said. “But not getting through the first hike was painful because I was in really great shape.”Explaining the problem further, he added: “It’s just overuse of the patellar tendon. There is nothing amazing about it. “It caught fire today and destroyed my entire competition.”
Eyes are now on the return of the decathlon
Despite the setback, Tejaswin did not give up on his Commonwealth Games campaign.The multi-talented athlete remains optimistic about recovering in time before the decathlon, which starts on Thursday.“I will be back in two days. We still have two days to go. I will do my best over the next two days and try to fix this. I will definitely start. I am not here on vacation,” he said. “The patellar tendon is used in the high jump and long jump, so if I can somehow get through those two events, I’m still confident the other competitions will be fine.”Tejaswin is the national record holder in the decathlon as well.
