Tejaswin Shankar overcame a bleeding nose and an unstable ankle in testing conditions over two days to achieve the Asian Games qualifying mark and win the decathlon gold medal in the National inter-state athletics championships at the Kalinga Stadium last week.
The lanky well-built Delhi lad relied on his good showing in his pet event (high jump), clearing 2.20m on day one, and pole vault, achieving 4m while being guided by National record holder Siva Subramani, on day two to gather 7576 points, including a fine second day effort that fetched him 3367 points.
The standout image from the night was a photograph, clicked on Tejaswin’s request, featuring all the participants of the decathlon. In an episode of the ‘What Google Won’t Tell You’ Podcast by Sportstar, Tejaswin spoke about how he won the decathlon gold with the help of those he was competing against and the emotions behind that photograph:
Listen to the full podcast here:
Excerpt:
It’s not a responsibility but it’s just a choice from my side. I chose to do it because I’m passionate about it (decathlon). Everyone who does the decathlon is. Because they know how much it sucks. You don’t get the attention a 100m sprinter or a javelin thrower gets. Even if you don’t win but throw 80m you have people going, “Woah.” Here if you get 7000 points, most people don’t even know what that means. We have five guys who crossed the 7000m mark. Most guys don’t even know how to calculate the 7000m mark. But there’s’ a lot more to it than just the number.
I was talking to someone at the long jump in the decathlon. He was saying “TJ, till yesterday when we used to do the long jump, there wouldn’t even be one guy watching. Just our coach would be telling where your take off was. When you were clapping, a few guys were clapping. We got motivated by that. We started clapping too.”
He continued, “But the next day, again, no one was at pole vault.” But that’s part and parcel. The pole vault really got all of us together with regard to having no one there. Couple of guys said they are going to drop out after this event. I took it on me and said “Why do you want to drop out now? You only have four events left. Why do you want to do this?”
It was an empty stadium. Just two coaches. I wanted to make sure all of us come together and cheer for the one guy completing his event and vice versa. They already had it in them. We all just needed one person to take the initiative, to clap hands and say “Come on guys.” One guy claps, four will follow. I wanted to be that guy. Going to the USA and learning all that - what is the point if you aren’t teaching this over here? That was the whole objective.
It came back as a boomerang. Before the 1500m, everyone knew before me that I needed to run 4.40 minutes to qualify. Right after the javelin, I was getting ready to warm up for the 1500m. I had the stopwatch in my hand. In the 1500m , I run a 200m, just to see at what pace I have to run the race at. So about 20 minutes before the race, I took the watch and got talking to a few decathletes who were going to the bathroom. They were asking me what am I doing. I said I was warming up. They told me this isn’t America and not to do any warm ups, that I could directly run in the race itself. I said, “No, I need to run the race in 4.40 minutes.” They said, “We’re saying, we will get it done. Don’t take tension.”
Before the race, I thought they were saying it as competitors, but I wasn’t feeling that confident. What if my race gets eaten (messed up)? I’ve run 4.36 minutes many times and I can comfortably run 4.25-4.26. but it’s a game of pace. Even if you run the first lap fast, the pace always drops in the second lap. So going back to the race - my first lap was 69 seconds. My second lap was 79 seconds. I was at a 10-second deficit. The 3rd and 4th laps were the same - in the 78-79 range. So in the second lap, I needed someone to set the pace. In my mind, I kept saying, “I need to find someone to set the pace.” And everyone was saying, “It will happen bhaisaab” and telling me how much the others ran in.
I started running. I didn’t even realise there was one guy behind me – Mohit who was cheering me on throughout the race. “ Chalo, chalo. Karna hai. Usko pakad ke chalo. Stalin age hain (Come on, come on. We have to do it. Keep up with him, Stalin is ahead). He is fourth and is trying to finish third. Yamandeep is coming first, go behind him.” He was positioning me and once I started to drop off, he got in front of me and said “ pakdo pakdo (catch up catch up).” At the end of the day, it was just a 1500m race. But after nine events, it feels like a marathon. Even the commentator was saying this.
For a couple of guys in front to lead the race so that they could pace me... that was something. They were running in the 4.30 range... And I was running in the 4.35 range. The guys behind me were already telling me, “We are finished. Don’t run behind us. We won’t run that fast.” That also plays a role, because they said if I run behind them, then I will be running at a 5-minute-rate and it will be a waste. The right guys came together and helped me out. It came back as a boomerang - the way I tried to help in the vault, they gave it back in the 1500m and helped me cross the finish line. At the end, one of them said, “When you have qualified, it feels like we have qualified because at least someone from our sport will represent India at the Asian level. Since we started, no one has represented India at the decathlon in Asia. This itself is going to boost decathlon in the country.” It felt good to hear that. At least, we are all on the same page when it comes to these things.
After the event, they all stood around and said we will talk about how we are training. I said, “We won’t just talk, we will get a picture clicked.” All the media persons were there and they said it’s the medal ceremony and we will get a picture with the medal. I said, “That’s the kind of picture you always get. This is the real spirit of the decathlon when everyone is together and gets clicked. It’s not my medal alone. If they didn’t help me in the 1500, I might not have qualified.” So I think that is what the decathlon taught me.
In the USA, they make everyone sit in the steeplechase pool and take a picture but here the pool was a little dirty so we didn’t do it there. But other wise I felt we had to take a picture.
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