Shankar clears 2.29m, betters Indian mark
NEW DELHI : India’s rising high jump star Tejaswin Shankar has set a national record, scaling 2.29m to better his previous mark of 2.28m achieved while winning the title at the Federation Cup meet at Patiala in March.
The Delhi jumper, who trains in the US, achieved the standard while representing Kansas University in the Texas Tech Corky/Crofoot Shootout competition in Lubbock on Friday.
Tejaswin cleared 2.29m in his first attempt, finishing way ahead of the competition. Landon Bartel of Nebraska was second at 2.11m.
Shankar began competition at 2.11m, and then cleared 2.16m. He also had no trouble at 2.21m, and cleared 2.25m in his second attempt. He then attacked 2.29m. The athlete, who tweeted his effort, didn’t mention if he tried to go higher.
Ratifying the record, however, will be subject to a dope test being done after the competition. Without that the technical committee of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will not include it in the record books. The effort should come as some consolation for the teenager, whose dreams of winning a medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games were dashed after he managed only sixth.
At his first major senior international meet in Australia, he could manage only 2.24m.
HOCKEY TEAMS PROGRESS
BANGKOK: The junior Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams continued their fine run at the Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers as they advanced to the finals of their respective categories here today.
The junior men’s team defeated Bangladesh 9-2 in their semifinal encounter while their women counterparts beat Malaysia 4-2 in their last-four stage match.
The men’s semifinal saw India dominate the first two periods as Shivam Anand scored a hat-trick (5th, 8th and 15th minutes) to give India a 3-0 lead going into the final period.
Six goals from the Indian team in the final period, including another one from Shivam (24th), were enough for them to see off the challenge from Bangladesh, who managed to score twice in the match through Sobuj Shohanur (23rd and 29th).
India’s other goal-scorers in the match were Rahul Kumar Rajbhar (22nd and 23rd), Maninder Singh (22nd), skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad (24th) and Mohammad Alishan (26th).