High jump national record

National Interstate Senior Athletics Championship:  For Tejaswin Shankar, the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou is an opportunity to promote Decathlon and bring the track-and-field event to focus in India.

The 24-year-old athlete, who already has the High Jump National Record to his name, and who also secured the Bronze medal in High Jump at the Commonwealth Games last year, the decision to switch to Decathlon has proven fruitful.

In his just second competition as a decathlete, Tejaswin scored 7,648 points at the Jim Click Shootout competition in Arizona, USA, missing out on Bharatinder Singh's 2011 national record by 10 points. The score also allowed him to cross the 7,500-point mark needed to secure an Asian Games berth. After his stellar performance at Arizona, Tejaswin competed in two more Decathlon events: the 62nd National Interstate Senior Athletics Championship and, most recently, the Asian Athletics Championships. Now, ahead of his biggest competition to date, Tejaswin's focus is on the sport and not on the competition.