When Tejas Shirse first stumbled on the third hurdle of his 110m hurdle race final on Saturday, he might have had fleeting flashbacks of what transpired just over a year ago at the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai.
Tejas remembers it as a ‘bad fall’.
On that evening, he knocked down the first hurdle, the second, the third…and so on, until he slipped and fell onto his seventh hurdle. He then had to pick himself up and complete the race, which only ended in a disqualification for him. That’s one race any athlete would want to forget.
Here, after getting off the blocks quickly, Tejas hit hurdle number three and five and nearly fell over into the next lane but managed to stay on his feet. He then had to build up pace again and it was not until the eighth hurdle that he went level with race leader Sachin Binu before inching ahead in the final hurdle, and eventually, seeing out the win to clinch gold.
“I was terrified [of having a repeat from last year],” says Tejas, after his race. “But I had to get going.”
Earlier in the day, Tejas had clocked a timing of 13.75s but his timing of 13.87s in the final was not enough to earn him a chance of Asian Games qualification, which stands at 13.57s. He was, nevertheless, happy with the result. He is happy to put behind the race in Chennai and the nightmare of a couple of injury-ridden years when he suffered a stress fracture on his right foot, osteitis pubis and grade two hamstring tear.
“I thought I would do well. The conditions were too humid and it takes too much energy, but a win is a win. At the end of the day, you just got to perform. Somedays you can and somedays you can’t,” he says.
While he was disappointed with not making the cut for the Hangzhou Asiad later this year, the Maharashtra hurdler feels he is on the right path.
“That is a big disappointment but it’s alright. I am just looking it as a positive being injury-free and consistent is all that matters right now,” says Tejas.
And the blow seemed to have sweetened by winning a national competition for the first time in the presence of his family, who were cheering him on from the stands. “My family is here, so the win is all that matters here. I usually don’t bring them to competition, because it’s a soft corner. In competitions, you have to be focussed and aggressive. To win a national competition in front of them is huge for me,” says Tejas, while struggling to spot them in the crowd. “ Kya kuch dikh nahi raha mereko (I can’t see anything).”
Tejas is short-sighted and is usually spectacled. While he warms up with his glasses, he removes them before his races. “Funny thing actually,” he laughs. “I can’t see past 3-4 metres. In hurdles, it’s very tricky and it’s possible I stumbled because of that. I have tried lenses but it starts getting blurry and sweating also becomes a problem. I recently turned 21, so I can get Lasik [eye surgery] done now.”
He says he finds it hard to run races in the evening, which was what happened in the Chennai Inter State. “Same problem [in Chennai]. It was in the evening and I found it hard to see in the floodlights. It was a pretty bad fall. Winning in such circumstances is a pretty big deal for me. If you see in the morning, I won with 13.75s and it was not a problem. But now I was hitting the hurdles because it’s pretty hard to see,” Tejas says.
Despite his minor shortcoming, and at just 21, Tejas has a personal best (PB) time of 13.61s he achieved in Ranchi last month. It is the second fastest by an Indian and the fastest on Indian soil. He has now run five races this year and has registered sub-14 timings in all of them. Current national record holder Siddhanth Thingalaya reached out to him after his PB race to laud his consistency, which has further boosted his confidence. He has the potential to get only better from here and according to Tejas himself, ‘sky is the limit’.
Tejas looking at his gold medal at the Inter State Championships. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Under the guidance of James Hillier, athletic director at Reliance Foundation in Mumbai, where Tejas has been training in the last six months, the youngster feels he is in the best hands.
“I joined Reliance Foundation six months ago and it’s going pretty well. I am working closely with physio Nilesh Makwana and my coach James Hillier has a good plan. He tells me it’s not just about two-three months and you win one competition, but it’s a long plan so I believe in that plan.
“Because you never know. I still think I am quite raw at this point and I need to build up my muscles among other things. With the right combination, then my level can be set then. In one year, I think I can touch 13.30s by 2024 and I can then get direct Olympic qualification,” he says.
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