High jumper Tejaswin wins first Big12 title in USA, equals national record

India’s Tejaswin Shankar won the men’s high jump title at the Big12 collegiate athletic meet with a national record-equalling leap in Texas, USA.

Appearing for the Kansas State University, Tejaswin cleared a season best 2.28m in his final attempt to equal his national record set in the 22nd Federation Cup in Patiala last year.

However, Tejaswin’s personal best is 2.29m, cleared in April last year at the Texas tech invite.

Tejaswin, thus, became the sixth Big12 high jump champion from Kansas State University and eight in the history of the collegiate meet.

Tejaswin, 20, is a gold medallist at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games besides winning a silver at the 2016 South Asian Games.

He rose to prominence when he broke Hari Shankar Roy’s 12-year-old national record of 2.25 metres with a jump of 2.26 metres at the Junior National Championships in Coimbatore in 2016.