'The day I found out I was going, I felt like this was meant to be': Tajaswin Shankar after historic CWG 2022 bronze

A last-minute visa in hand on Friday, Tejaswin Shankar flew from India. That was just half the battle won. The other half, as he tells in this chat with HT, was won in his mind in Birmingham.

Tejaswin Shankar set the tone for each of his jumps with those carefully choreographed claps with the spectators behind him to get him going (and leaping). He fist-bumped Brandon Starc after the Australian nailed 2.25m to raise the bar for the gold. His right hand cupped his right ear after he landed acing the 2.22m barrier on his first attempt.

India's Tejaswin Shankar after winning his maiden CWG medal.  (Getty)

Shankar was the showman in the theatre of beehive-resembling athletes in the Alexander Stadium. A place where he wasn’t supposed to be. Was he? Will he? Won’t he?

A month-and-a-half of asking, answering and redrafting those questions, Shankar did finally turn up four days before his 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) high jump final. And with four clean jumps before two attempts at 2.25 and one at 2.28, took the bronze medal at 2.22m.

The theatre of the absurd had played out thus: Shankar, despite a qualifying mark to show, was not included in the original CWG squad by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for skipping the inter-state meet. He went to court and got the AFI and the Indian Olympic Association to put in a request with the CWG organisers for his late addition. They denied it, for it wasn’t a like-for-like replacement. Then they had a change of mind, and Shankar the continued hope-despair-hope swirl.

A last-minute visa in hand on Friday, he flew from India. That was just half the battle won. The other half, as he tells in this chat with HT, was won in his mind in Birmingham.

Excerpts:

Tell us about the final leg of your make-a-run to CWG marathon saga…

Around two weeks ago is when I actually found out that I was going, but I still didn’t have a visa or a ticket. So, I really didn’t know even then. In the next one week, all stakeholders came together and finally made it happen. So I finally knew when I was going. We had all the pieces together. Luckily the qualification round got cancelled because there were only 14 entries. The day I found out I was going, I felt like things were moving my way and this was meant to be. Especially when I landed and I saw the entry list, there were only 14 guys and some of the better ones were not here. I felt like this is the opportunity I want to capitalise on; I had been fighting to get here for the last one, one-and-a-half months and I’m finally here.

You had three days to train here after landing on July 30…

Yeah, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday the qualification got cancelled and Wednesday was the final. So I had 3-4 days, which in an ideal situation probably won’t be enough but I knew I had to turn this situation in my favour. I made sure that I stick to my routine and do everything in my control to be ready for the final.

Did you feel like you had nothing to lose, and yet had a lot to if you did not win a medal?

I’m not somebody to make excuses, saying yaar I’m not feeling good and stuff like that. I only had three days to recover. People believed in me, and I was here. And I knew I had to make the most of the opportunity. I’m happy that I could do that.

You probably couldn’t do a lot about the jetlag and recovery, but how did your mind move on from the drama upon landing here?

Theek hai, who sab bahane toh hote rahenge. Aaj agar mein 4th aata toh bolte jetlag nahi utra, pehle bol dete toh ho jata (If I had come 4th the talk would have been around jetlag and how this wouldn’t have happened if I had been informed earlier). Those excuses are always going to be there, but why not try and overcome them. Just see what we can do if we go in with a positive mindset. The day I landed, I made sure I didn’t have a single negative thought about anything. My goal was to come here and make sure physically I’m ready to do what I have to do. Things happen in a competition of this calibre when you have so many good athletes. But you want to be mentally and physically ready for that moment and that’s what I tried to do best. I’m glad that it paid dividends.

Did you have a chat with anyone about the stuff in the lead-up once you were here?

I had a chat with my coach (Cliff Rovelto). He always says this one thing: tomorrow if you want to make money in track and field, if you want to be competing in Diamond League competitions, in Europe, you’re not going to have the luxury of staying there for a week and getting fed and those sorts of things. You have to adapt to the situation and try and make do with whatever you have. If you don’t have a crossbar or a lifting, just put somebody on your shoulder and get through the routine. You want to make things happen by finding alternatives. That’s how you’ll succeed. Not every day is going to be the way you want it. I had that in my mind. I didn’t want to change anything, because the one thing that athletes really want is certainty and the fact that they know things are going their way. I just tried to keep those things going my way.

What has this experience taught Tejaswin, the athlete?

Most important thing is, somebody will be like, “oh well your season best is 2.27m, you’ve got to jump 2.28 or 2.29”. I mean, there were guys whose personal best is 2.36, and they ended up jumping 2.25. So anything can happen on that day. Season bests don’t matter. You have to make sure you’re present on that day, and how your mindset is on that day. I knew that in my previous CWG, I had finished 6th but I had jumped 2.24. I had jumped higher then, and I finished 3rd today.