Tejaswin Shankar betters national record at Federation Cup

Tejaswin Shankar set a new national record in the mens high jump scaling 228 metres at the Run Adam Federation Cup athletics championships here on Wednesday Shankar had earlier cleared 228m at a collegiate event in the US but this mark was his first at an Athletics Federation of India AFI event Shankar also held the previous national record of 226m recorded at the Junior National Championships in 2016 In the process of bettering the national record Shankar also cleared the qualification guideline of 225m set by the AFI for entry to the Commonwealth Games squadShankar flubbed his first attempt of at 210m but improved steadily to clear 214m 218m 225m and finally the new national record of 228m He then improved the height to 231m and although he came within a few centimetres of clearing the height failed in his three attempts I had jumped this height in the USA but it feels good to clear this height at a competition in India said Shankar a firstyear student of Kansas State University I need to get more consistent I hope I will clear the 231m at the Commonwealth Games Shankar saidBut while all eyes were on Shankar Siddharth Yadav delivered the performance of his career to also clear 225m and finish with silver It is the best jump of my career My previous best was 223m said the 25yearold Yadav who made three failed attempts of 228m Shankar too was all praise for his rival It is great to see two Indians going to the Commonwealth Games More than going to the Commonwealth Games it is a better feeling to know that two of us are going I never thought I would see two Indians clearing 225m It always boosts you to be competing against another good jumper Shankar saidShankar and Yadav delivered by far the best performances of the day They were not the only athletes to qualify for the Commonwealth Games though L Suriya also made the cutoff mark in the womens 10000m race by clocking 32 minutes and 2396 seconds The qualifying guideline was set at 3230 Suriya had won the 5000m at the Federation Cup earlier yet had not pushed herself too hard thenWe had focused all her efforts on the 10000m because we felt that she had a better chance in that event Suriyas coach Surender Singh said Of the other athletes in the competition only pole vaulter P Surekha came close to matching the qualifying guideline for the Commonwealth Games Surekha who held the meet record of 405m and the national record of 415m managed to clear 390m to finish 10cm shy of the CWG qualifying guideline of 400m She finished ahead of Khyati Vakharia who jumped 380m and Krishna Rachan who cleared 370mAnu Rani who needed to exceed her personal best of 6180m in order to match the qualifying guideline of 62m set by the AFI for the Commonwealth Games could only manage a best of 5737m on the day Rani produced her best effort in her very first attempt but faltered consistently after that fouling her final two throws Pushpa Jhakar of Haryana finished second with 5370m while Sharmila Kumari finished third with 5353 secondsCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the goThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever