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Tejaswin Shankar, India's current national record holder in men's high jump, achieved a personal best of 7,648 points to finish second in a decathlon competition at the Jim Click Shootout and Multis 2023 athletics meet in Arizona, USA on Saturday, helping him breach Asian Games 2023 qualifying standard for the decathlon, set at 7,500 points by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
The Indian athlete made his combined-event debut at the Big 12 Conference in Texas in May of last year, and this was only his second decathlon competition. Tejaswin Shankar recorded an astounding 7,592 there, the highest score in the decathlon by an Indian competitor in almost 11 years. Tejaswin Shankar, who won the high jump bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, increased his personal best to 7,648. He is now only 10 points short of Bharatinder Singh's 2011 national record for the Indian decathlon. Decathlon is a combined event involving 10 different sports- 100m sprint, long jump, high jump, shot put, discus throw, 110m hurdles, javelin throw, pole vault, 400m race and a 1500m race. Players get points for their performances in each sport and get ranked as per the total tally at the conclusion of all events. Tejaswin led the high jump, 400 m events while he finished second in the long jump, shot put and 110m hurdles. The Pole vault event, where he finished eighth, was his weakest performance. At the Jim Click Shootout, Till Steinforth of the University of Nebraska took first place in the decathlon with 7,845 points. Third-place finisher Emil Uhlin scored 7,440 points. Tejaswin Shankar made headlines before the last year's Commonwealth Games when he was not included in the Indian delegation for the Birmingham meet despite meeting the admission requirements. The high jumper travelled to the UK and returned with a bronze medal after the Indian courts intervened. Following his success in Birmingham, the high jumper had stated his wish to transition to the decathlon, and the meet in Arizona marked his first competitive decathlon competition since that time. Tejaswin won the men's high jump gold medal in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold competition, in Boston in February of this year. (ANI)
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