Tejas Shirse, Sarvesh Kushare headline India’s first-day athletics challenge

Sarvesh Kushare (left) and Tejas Shirse Tejas Shirse will look to open India’s medal account in athletics when the track and field events begin at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Monday. Shirse broke the men’s 110m hurdles national record of 13.27 during the Indian Athletics Series in Ludhiana last month and carried that form into the season after winning gold at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar.He also won the Federation Cup title in Ranchi and will be hoping to perform in style in his first Commonwealth Games. However, it all still feels like a pipe dream considering he was sidelined for more than four months after suffering a serious right ankle injury late last year.“To be honest, 13.27 wasn’t even part of the plan. Even qualifying for the Commonwealth Games wasn’t something we thought about initially. But things worked out and I managed to achieve both,” Shirse said after his victory in Bhubaneswar.The injury marked one of the worst points of his career, which he detailed in an Instagram post in March that began with the words: “I hate it! It was so hard at times that he didn’t sleep for days at times and was “angry and frustrated to the point of bursting.”“People kept talking about my ‘potential’ and I started to hate that word because everyone said I had so much potential but I wasn’t able to show it,” he said.However, Shirse still believed in himself and emerged stronger with the support of his team. “I came out of this phase as a much more mature person. I now take every experience positively,” he said. “Looking back, I’m glad I went through that phase because it changed me.Apart from his physiotherapist Nilesh Makwana and trainer James Hillier, his patience has helped him the most during this period. He believes the experience has prepared him for “battles on the track and in life.”However, he kept most of it away from his family so as not to worry them. However, his coach James Hillier couldn’t be more proud of his comeback.“We resumed training on the track only on April 13 and exactly two months later, on June 13 in Ludhiana, he broke the national record. That’s an extraordinary achievement,” Hillier said. It will be an even greater success when he reaches the podium. It’s challenging, but Hillier thinks it’s possible.Apart from Shirs, the trio of Sarvesh Kushare, Tejaswin Shankar and Aadarsh ​​Ram will try to shine in the evening section in the men’s high jump final. Kushare heads into the CWG on a high after breaking the national record with a jump of 2.31m and is joint fourth on the world list this season. Meanwhile, Shankar won bronze in the previous edition while Ram has a personal best of 2.27m.In the men’s long jump qualification, Murali Sreeshankar and Lokesh Sathyanathan will be in action, while Gurindervir Singh begins his campaign in the opening round of the men’s 100m. Gurindervir broke the national record in Ranchi with a time of 10.09 seconds and sounded confident of putting up a good show on his CWG debut.