Tejaswin story: Disappointment of losing silver, back to being a ‘Uni teacher’ in the US

India’s Tejaswin Shankar won bronze in the decathlon at the Asian Games with 7,934 points, adding to his previous silver. Disappointed with the result, he said he lost silver, cited a demanding season and outlined plans to improve for the World Championships

Nagoya: National record holder decathlete Tejaswin Shankar is an interesting character and he lived up to his reputation yet again after winning the bronze medal in the ongoing Asian Games here.

He settled for bronze with 7934 total points on Sunday, to add to the silver he had won in the last edition. Japan’s Yuma Muruyama took the gold with 8123 points. In the last edition, Muruyama won the bronze.

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“Third is not the spot I was aiming for. This bronze monkey has to be removed from my back. I am pretty pissed at this point. I am so disappointed with the bronze medal. I don’t think I won a bronze, I lost the silver,” Tejaswin said with a lot of disappointment.

The 27-year-old athlete from Delhi won the 1500m race — the last of the 10 events — with a time of 4:33.09, beating Muruyama (4:33.92). The 1500m result did not have much significance in the final outcome as Muruyama had taken enough points to win the gold before that.

Tejaswin knew gold was beyond his reach, but something just caught up his mind. He remembered Muruyama winning the 1000m short track race during heptathlon event at Asian Indoor Championships in China, in February. Tejaswin finished second behind Muruyama in that event but the Indian won the heptathlon gold.

Men compete in a 7-event heptathlon in indoor championships instead of 10-event decathlon outdoors. Indoor arenas lack space and have safety concerns to hold throwing events like discus and javelin.

“Well, at that point, it was not about medals but about the fact that Yuma beat me at Asian Indoor Championships in last one kilometer. That reel runs a lot (on social media),” said Tejaswin.

“Whenever I see that reel, I feel that even after winning gold, I couldn’t win that one kilometer. So, throughout 1500m race, when he was in front, that was what was going on in my head. That I have to catch him, and in the end, I’ll give him the same water that he gave me that day (during Asian Indoor Championships).”

He said he was pretty satisfied to win the 1500m race. He also won long jump and high jump events.

“He was leading the whole race (on Sunday). He did the same thing at Asian Indoor Championships. I knew exactly when to take over and that’s exactly what I did. I was pretty satisfied with that 1500m effort.”

‘One competition too many, ideal is three in a year’

Before the Asian Games, Tejaswin took part in three decathlon competitions, including in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where he won a bronze, and one heptathlon event at Asian Indoor Championships. He felt it was one competition too many.

“He (Muruyama) did one decathlon in April and then one in May, he didn’t finish it. This is his second decathlon. So, those things add up. I’ve been going on since 30th of January. I am not blaming anybody

“So, I did four this year. I’m so glad that AFI allowed me to skip National Inter-State Championships.”

Tejaswin could not go near his national record mark of 8057 points recorded during Federation Cup in May, but he has been consistent through the season.

“This year, every one of my decathlons has been over 7900 points. That in itself speaks of improvement for me. Consistency is more important than one big performance.

“Now, I just have to find another 300 points to get to 8300 points and qualify for World Championships next year. So, that’s what my next challenge is going to be.”

Asked what is the ideal number of competitions for a decathlete to remain at his best, Tejaswin said, “Two, one might say is very less. Three would be the absolute sweet spot where one is a qualifying meet, second is against really good competition, and then third is the major championships.

“If I aspire to go to World Championships or to Olympics, I can’t be doing five decathlons in a year and then expecting 8400 points to qualify for Olympics. That’s not possible.

“I need to rework my plan in cooperation with AFI. But at the same time be able to draw from their expertise and kind of be able to brainstorm to the point where the championship decathlon of that year is my third for the year. That way I can be more fresh, more hungry.”

Competition over, now to teaching assistant duties in USA

Tejaswin works as a graduate teaching assistant in the kinesiology department at Kansas State University, USA, and he will be doing that the remaining months of the year after a brief rest.

“I have flying back (to USA) on Tuesday. I have my school duties. I am a teaching assistant and I have to grade my assignments. I haven’t met my kids for a week. So, I have to go and start doing that.”

“And then hopefully have that done by the weekend so that the kids have their grades.”

Asked if he could be a role model for the kids back in Kansas, he said, “Well, absolutely not. I don’t care about being a role model for anyone. I mean, if somebody wants to admire me, that’s fine.

“But I don’t go to people and say, admire me that I’m a role model. I don’t have any such interest. But I think the bottom line is: I do what I do because I absolutely love what I do. So if there’s one thing you want to learn from me, just absolutely love what you do and I don’t want you to learn anything else.”