Tejaswin Shankar withdrew from the high jump in Glasgow after a knee injury
India’s Tejaswin Shankar broke down in tears while speaking to the press in Glasgow. Tejaswin could not hold back as he explained why he could not participate in the men’s high jump event where he was one of the favorites to win a medal.
The Birmingham 2022 bronze medalist came into the tournament in the form of his life. He arrived in Glasgow believing he could win gold or at least add another Commonwealth Games medal to his collection.
Instead, his competition lasted just one jump.
TEJASWIN SHANKAR IS INJURED
On Monday, Tejaswin’s knee buckled before the start of the competition and he was forced to stay away from the high jump. Despite being listed as a DNS (Did Not Start), Shankar went out for that lone try in the final, hoping to pull through.
He couldn’t.
There was something particularly cruel about that look. Tejaswin arrived in Glasgow as one of India’s medal hopes in the high jump. Now he sat beside the pit, watching the event he hoped to control unfold without him.
“Every jumper deals with one injury or another. But it’s one of those days. There’s 365 days in a year and this is the day you don’t want (the injury) to flare up. And this is the day it flared up,” Tejaswin said.
“I really believed I could jump for the win or at least a medal. But not to, it really stings because I was in great shape. Before my first jump, I really believed I was going to have a good day.”
Tejaswin Shankar breaks down while talking to the media
“It’s one of those things that really stings.
Tejaswin Shankar after withdrawing from the men’s high jump final at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The Indian high jumper was emotional during the media interview pic.twitter.com/9P7oYhmUcv— nnis Sports (@nnis_sports) July 27, 2026
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This was perhaps the hardest thing for Tejaswin to accept. The injury was nothing spectacular or completely unknown. It was the kind of problem athletes learned to manage, especially those who repeatedly put enormous strain on their knees.
“Pretty much everybody has this injury. It’s just overuse of your patellar tendon. It’s nothing spectacular. Every athlete does it, I did it. But today it flared up and ruined my whole day,” he said.
“I’m just trying to console myself. I was so ready today, so excited.”
TJ GUIDES SARVESH KUSHARE
And yet his night in the high jump was far from over. Tejaswin did not leave the competition after the injury. He remained sidelined while fellow Indians Sarvesh Kushare and Aadarsh Ram Jothi continued their fight in the final.
As Sarvesh negotiated the pressure of the final, Tejaswin stayed close and offered advice between tries. At one stage, after Sarvesh missed his first two attempts at 2.25m, Tejaswin suggested that his teammate skip the height altogether and go straight for 2.28m.
“Why don’t you skip it and try to clear 2.28m in one attempt? You’ll win the gold,” Tejaswin told him.
Sarvesh decided not to take any chances. He went to 2.25 again and cleared it on his last attempt.
Tejaswin could not clear a single bar for India that night. But he was still trying to reassure his teammate from the sidelines.
In the end, Sarvesh won a silver, becoming the first Indian to win a Commonwealth Games high jump medal better than bronze. The medal came after a remarkable year for the 31-year-old, who had earlier become the first Indian to clear 2.30m, breaking Tejaswin’s eight-year-old national record.
But while Sarvesh was fighting for a medal, Tejaswin was coming to terms with the sudden end of a competition he believed could be his.
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Tejaswin has more events ahead of him, including the decathlon, and is determined to give himself every chance he can to return to competition.
“I have two more days, I’ll try to come back, do my best and fix it. I’m not here on vacation, I’ll start and then see what happens,” he said.
“This tendon is used more in the long jump and high jump. If I can somehow manage those two events, I’m sure all the other events will be fine.”
It’s an ambitious goal, especially with so little time for the tendon to recover. But Tejaswin was not ready to write off his Commonwealth Games campaign after one torturous night.
“The next two days I’ll try to fix it. I have the best people in my corner. I’m sure I can fix it,” he concluded.
– The end
Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
28 Jul 2026 09:09 IST