Tejaswin Shankar breaks heptathlon report, however focus again on excessive bounce

Indian excessive jumper Tejaswin Shankar, 22, rewrote the nationwide report in his first try at heptathlon on the DeLoss Dodds Invitational, in Kansas City. The excessive bounce specialist amassed 5,650 factors over two days to erase PJ Vinod’s tally of 5,561.
Hepathlon includes seven occasions however Tejaswin, the Indian nationwide report holder within the excessive bounce, believed he had a very good probability to interrupt one other mark.
“I looked up the national record on Wikipedia and then pulled out my calculator. I added up points I could potentially score and I knew I had a good chance. I was most worried about the pole vault event as it was a totally alien sport to me,” Tejaswin mentioned.

✈️ @TejaswinShankar can fly ✈️
📊 2.25m/7-4.50 – #1 HJ in NCAA@NCAATrackDiscipline x @USTFCCCA pic.twitter.com/bvzsuZ8Usv
— Okay-State Track (@OkayStateTFXC) January 30, 2021
At the Kansas State University, the place Tejaswin is pursuing a level in enterprise administration, all promising athletes endure pentathlon (5 occasions) coaching forward of the outside season. Since the final two years, Tejaswin has been actively collaborating within the programme and feels it made the transition to heptathlon all of the extra simpler.
“I was anyway training for five events and had to just add two more. We do this pentathlon training to build our bodies and assess our fitness levels. Our coach tells us it is very important to become a wholesome athlete,” Tejaswin explains.
At main sporting occasions, together with the Olympics and the Asian Games, males take part within the decathlon, which consists of 10 occasions.

Whatever it takes🤣 https://t.co/FS5ctGgLPE
— Tejaswin Shankar (TJ) (@TejaswinShankar) January 30, 2021
The preliminary success within the heptathlon has not taken away his focus from his pet even, the excessive bounce. In reality, this shall be his final multi-discipline competitors this season.
“The outdoor season is about to start and I will go the extra yard to achieve the Olympic qualification mark,” he says.
Tejaswin’s finest bounce and in addition the Indian nationwide report stands at 2.29 metres, whereas to attain the Olympic minimize he should leap over 2.33m.

🏆Heptathlon Champ🏆@TejaswinShankar ➡️ 5,650 factors#OkayStateTF pic.twitter.com/HieRYQE08u
— Okay-State Track (@OkayStateTFXC) January 30, 2021
Strict protocols
When Tejaswin received the heptathlon title on the DeLoss Dodds Invitational on Saturday he couldn’t even have fun the feat along with his teammates. The strict COVID protocols permit solely rivals inside a venue an hour earlier than the graduation of their respective occasions. There are fixed assessments and monitoring, aside from social distancing.
“At our university, the athletes have to undergo a COVID test twice a week. Then each organiser has their own set of protocols and tests that we have to keep in mind,” he says.
“Even training was done in a phased manner. Time slots were allotted to minimise interaction. The coaching sessions would begin at six in the morning and go on till nine at night. You have to feel for the coaches. They have their task cut out due to the slot system.”

.@TejaswinShankar wins the Triangular Showdown High Point Award with 25 pts.
📈 https://t.co/oncwf6GRek#KStateTF pic.twitter.com/ZscjI7TZGP
— Okay-State Track (@OkayStateTFXC) January 16, 2021
Close shave
Although Tejaswin now strictly follows all the rules prescribed by the college a bit of slip in December virtually proved pricey. “We were clearly told that we should avoid social interactions. But it had been a long time since I had met my teammates. So about 7-8 of us decided to have dinner together but the next day one of them was positive. We all became close contacts and had to isolate ourselves for two weeks,” Tejaswin says.
The isolation meant Tejaswin and his mates couldn’t proceed their coaching and courses for 2 weeks.“For an athlete, two weeks of no training is a huge thing. Our coach Cliff Rovelto was really disappointed and upset with us,” he says
Tejaswin admitted that he learnt his lesson and has vowed to by no means take the rules with no consideration.