Tejaswin Shankar has won the bronze medal in the decathlon event of the Asian Games. Now he will go to America and check the copies of the students. However, he will regret not winning the silver medal. Tejaswin, who had won a silver medal in the last Asian Games, won the bronze medal on Sunday with a score of 7,934 points. Japan’s Yuma Muruyama won the gold medal with 8,123 points, while China’s Chen Xi won the silver medal with 8,012 points. Muruyama had won a bronze medal in the last Asian Games.
Tejaswin said disappointingly, ‘Bronze was not the medal I wanted to win. I have to end this bronze streak. I am quite disappointed at this time. I don’t think I have won bronze, rather I have lost silver. The 27-year-old athlete from Delhi won the 1500m race, the last event of the 10-event decathlon, with a timing of 4:33.09. He left Muruyama (4:33.92) behind. However, the result of 1500 meters did not have much impact on the medals, because Muruyama had already scored enough points for the gold medal.
gold was not the goal
Tejaswin knew that the gold medal was out of his reach, but during the 1500m race, his defeat to Muruyama in the 1000m race during the heptathlon event of the Asian Indoor Championships in China in February was on his mind. There are seven events in the Indoor Championship. Tejaswin said, ‘At that time it was not about the medal, but about the fact that Yuma had defeated me in the last one kilometer in the Asian Indoor Championship. The reel of that race is widely circulated on social media. Whenever I watch that reel, I think that despite winning the gold, I could not beat him in that one kilometer. So during the entire 1500 meter race, when he was ahead of me, all that was running in my mind was that I have to catch him. In the end I will give him the same answer which he gave me that day.
happy to win the race
Tejaswin expressed satisfaction on winning the 1500 meter race. He also won the long jump and high jump. “He was ahead the whole race,” he said. He had done the same in the Asian Indoor Championships. I knew when to take the lead and I did exactly that. I was quite satisfied with my performance in 1500 meters. Before the Asian Games, Tejaswin had participated in three decathlon competitions. These included the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, where he won the bronze medal. Apart from this, he also participated in heptathlon in the Asian Indoor Championship. He believes that this year there has been one too many competitions. He said, ‘Muruyama took part in a decathlon in April and then entered another competition in May, although he could not finish it. This was his second decathlon. These things matter. I have been participating in competitions continuously since January 30. I am not blaming anyone. This year I participated in four competitions. I am happy that the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) allowed me to withdraw from the National Inter-State Championships.
Tejaswin continues to perform well
Tejaswin, who scored a national record of 8,057 points during the Federation Cup in May, could not come close to that figure this time, but his performance remained consistently good throughout the season. He said, ‘This year I have scored more than 7,900 points in every decathlon. This in itself shows my improvement. Consistency is more important than a big performance. Now I have to collect 300 more points to reach 8,300 points and qualify for the World Championships next year. This is my next challenge.
Tejaswin will check copy in America
After the competition is over, Tejaswin will now return to America and take up his studies and teaching responsibilities. He is a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Kinesiology at Kansas State University, USA. He will fulfill this responsibility after taking some rest in the remaining months of the year. He said, ‘I am going back to America on Tuesday. I have university responsibilities. I am a ‘Teaching Assistant’ and I have to check the ‘assignments’ of the students. I haven’t met my students for a week, so I have to go back and start working. When asked if he could be a role model for his Kansas students, Tejaswin said, “Absolutely not.” I don’t care about being a role model for anyone. If someone wants to praise me, that’s fine.