CHENNAI: Sarvesh Kushare knows how to use momentum. After that historic sixth place in the Tokyo World Championships, the jumper from Maharashtra has been on a one-way trip towards success. Ending 2025 with a personal best of 2.28m, the jumper went up a notch, to break the national record at the National Inter-State meet in Bhubaneswar last month. That leap had more significance because he has come close to breaking the record, which stood for eight years under Tejaswin Shankar’s name. Days later, Kushare made his debut in the coveted Diamond League in Monaco, and finished third with a 2.26 mark.
Later on Monday, the 31-year-old marked his incredible run with silver in the men’s high jump final at the Scotstoun Stadium with a 2.25m jump. This marked India’s best finish at this event in the Commonwealth Games. Jamaica’s Romaine Beckford takes home gold as he took lesser attempts to leap past the bar measured at the same height.
His coach from the Army Sports Institute (ASI) Jithin Thomas was delighted with his performances. He said that Kushare worked on his long strides and strength and conditioning during the off-season. “We worked on his explosiveness and his physical strength. With his height at 1.79m, it was important to work on his explosiveness,” he told this daily from Glasgow.
Kushare’s 2.25m is his fourth best in the season. What the coach expects from his ward is to breach marks without as many attempts as possible. “That is what we are working more on. To clear the bar in the first attempt,” he added.
While there might be debate on the levels of competitions due to Hamish Kerr’s last-minute withdrawal, Kushare’s feat from the last 12 months is nothing but inspiring.
Will Tejaswin take part in decathlon?
While Kushare’s silver brings delight to the nation, Tejaswin Shankar, another Indian high jump exponent and decathlete, had to sit out throughout the jumps final citing injury. As per visuals, he injured his knee in his first attempt of 2.05m. “He had a bit of an issue with his knee, unfortunately. So he had to pull out of the competition. We're going to try and do what we can to get him healthy for the decathlon and we'll shift our focus to getting him ready for the decathlon,” Athletics Director of Reliance Foundation James Hillier, where Tejaswin is part of, had said.The men’s decathlon is set to begin on Thursday with the 100m dash.
Tejaswin finally breached the 8000-point mark at the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May and hoped to repeat that here. With that injury, doubts remain over his participation.
Meanwhile, Tejas Shirse limped to finish last in the men’s 110m hurdles final at the same session. In what was a race of hope for the hurdler – who became the first Indian to take part in a hurdles final since Gurbachan Singh Randhawa in 1966 – Shirse appeared to have hurt himself during the race. However, Hillier said that he suffered an injury in the warm ups. “It's a recurring injury that he's been having and unfortunately, he was just not able to put any pressure through his foot in the final. He pretty much knew that he couldn't race, but the sort of nature of the guy, he wasn't willing to give up,” Hillier added.
