17-year-old Tejaswin Shankar sets national senior record in junior meet

Coimbatore, Nov 10: Delhi boy Tejaswin Shankar today (November 10) smashed the 12-year-old national senior record in high jump with an effort of 2.26m while winning the gold on the opening day of the 32nd National Junior Athletics Championships here.

The 17-year-old Tejaswin achieved the rare feat of a junior athlete breaking the national senior record.

The earlier national senior record was in the name of Hari Shankar Roy of West Bengal who had jumped 2.25m while winning a silver in the Asian All-Star Athletics meet in Singapore in 2004.

Tejaswin, though, has been in senior circuit for some time and he won the gold in the National Open Athletics in Lucknow in September with a jump of 2.22m.

The 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist Tejaswin had easy clearances over 2.06, 2.12, 2.18 and 2.21 in all his first attempts today. He had just one failure over 2.24m, and then came the record of 2.26m, also with the second attempt.

A senior record while still in junior grade is a rare phenomenon in Indian athletics. Tamil Nadu's Nallusamy Annavi did this achievement way back in 1984 when he sailed over 2.12m in high jump in New Delhi.

"I did not expect the record here. I have no idea what happened to me. It went like a fairy-tale," Tejaswin said after his event.

Another Delhi boy Shanawaj Khan, a bronze medallist in this year's World School Games at Trabzon (Turkey), successfully defended the U-16 high jump gold with a meet record of 2.02m.

Uttar Pradesh girl Amrita Patel clocked 6:35.66 to break the U-16 age-group 2,000m record while while Haryana's Vikas did the same in U-16 boys section with a time of 5:31.87.

Double Asian junior gold medallist Lili Das (4:25.22) of West Bengal won the U-20 girls 1500m race over Kerala's world school bronze medalist Babitha (4:33.77).

PTI