When the excessive jumper Tejaswin Shankar was beginning off athletics coaching in school, his late father Harishankar wasn’t completely happy. His lawyer father wished Tejaswin to deal with research since he didn’t see athletics, a sport plagued with age fraud and doping, as a viable profession possibility.
Tejaswin, who bagged India’s first ever excessive leap medal on the lately concluded Commonwealth Video games, needed to practice throughout college lunch breaks to make sure his father didn’t get to know.
“I couldn’t go before or after school because my dad would get to know about it. So I used to practice during lunch breaks so that nobody found out. This went on for some time and then the Delhi state meet came and I was able to slowly build up. State medals and then interstate, 2014 School Nationals in Ranchi that you were talking about. By then he got to know and we had that tiff every time we had to talk about sports. ‘Kya yahi karte rehte ho, padhai me bhi dhyan do’ (What are you up to, focus on your studies) he would say,” says Tejaswin.
Congratulations!
Tejaswin Shankar opened INDIAN athletics group’s medal account with a bronze within the males’s excessive leap occasion within the Birmingham CWG 2022. Nationwide report holder Shankar cleared 2.22m to complete third within the occasion. pic.twitter.com/wjTlmkJtTm— Narayan Chandra Roy (@Narayan80004259) August 4, 2022
Tejaswin, again then, knew that his father would quickly put his foot down. He noticed the ultimatum coming lengthy earlier than it really did. Simply earlier than the 2014 Faculty nationals in Ranchi his father instructed him that he had to choose between sports activities and research. Tejaswin’s father additionally instructed him about his battle with blood most cancers for the primary time.
“He told me he was at the last stages of his life and that was in Jan-February and in March he passed away. I did not understand all of this at that time. All he said was that he didn’t have much time. He just told me to choose between sports and studies,” says Tejaswin.
It was then that the 15-year outdated Tejaswin determined to pen a letter to his father. Whereas profusely weeping he wrote that the Ranchi occasion can be his final competitors and that he would deal with his research after the occasion. He handed the letter to his father and left for Ranchi not figuring out that his harmless letter would transfer his father.
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Tejaswin Shankar Wins Bronze 🥉 in Males’s Excessive Leap Remaining on the Commonwealth Video games to open #TeamIndia‘s medal rely in observe and area@TejaswinShankar 💪🇮🇳💥
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— Specific Sports (@IExpressSports) August 3, 2022
“I did not understand all of this at that time. After handing him the letter I went to the Ranchi nationals where I won my first bronze medal and again it’s bronze at the Commonwealth Games,” he says.
The letter and medal have been a turning level in his profession. “That was my first national, and then he understood that sports is my passion and this is my calling. Then mummy told me that when I had left for the competition they had a talk about it and he was moved by that letter. After that, he just wanted me to follow my dreams but then he did not have a lot of time and we lost him a month later,” says Tejaswin.
However Tejaswin remembers that bronze fondly because it was the stepping stone for his exploits on the home circuit. He feels a bronze at CWG might simply be the start of a brand new begin on the worldwide
“From there the journey began and now I have a bronze again. Every time I get a bronze I feel it is the beginning of something new. Then it was at the national level and since then I have done really well and maybe this bronze is the beginning of something new.”
