Family and belief: How high jumper Sarvesh Kushare marches on

“4 tractor loads of crops worth lakhs were destroyed.”

Sarvesh Kushare shrugs his shoulder when he recalls the moment he received that call from his father, an onion farmer in Nashik. Unseasonal rains in the first weeks of May and the lack of storage facilities meant that the family lost what would have been a profitable harvest.

Kushare tells The Bridge that he did what he could to console his parents.

“Just the way my parents tell me ‘Don’t worry’ after I lose, I told them the same thing.”

After that call, he was back in training, for moving on to the next challenge is what Kushare does best.

Looking ahead

At the Indian Open Athletics Meet 2025 in Bengaluru, Kushare topped the men’s high jump charts clearing 2.21m, nudging the national record holder Tejaswin Shankar to second spot.

But he was not overjoyed and there certainly was no punching of the air. Instead, he picked up a conversation with Shankar almost immediately after the competition concluded.

“I was speaking to Tejaswin about the approach. I need to work on the last five steps on the approach which are large for me and the tendency is to overstretch, so I need to work on that. If I fix that, my jumps will be better,” he says.

And Kushare is already looking ahead.

“I have not done my personal best this year so far, but I will,” he nods, with his gaze rooted to the track.

‘Just have to perform’

For a while now, Kushare has been on the cusp of attaining the results that matter. In 2018, he beat the meet record at the 58th National Open Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, but fell agonizingly short of the 2.29m national record.

Thereafter, he saw action at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, but a medal eluded him. At the Paris Olympics, he was pegged back by an ankle injury and finished 25th in qualification.

It has all been a case of ‘so near yet so far.’

“He is so close. If there is anyone who can break my national record, it is him, and that’s why I was speaking with him after the event today,” says Tejaswin Shankar.

And Kushare knows he has got the goods. It is just a matter of things coming together.

“Everything is good for me. I’m getting all the support; I just have to perform. The work out, the training plan, nutrition, if I work on all those things, the performance will come,” says the 30-year-old, oozing confidence.

And at that very moment, his phone rings. It is his family.

Having tuned into the live broadcast, they want to have a quick congratulatory word with him.

“My wife takes care of all my diet and nutrition needs and that’s why I’m able to continue even after getting married,” he chuckles.

With sponsors backing him and the competitor in him feeding off the unrelenting support of his doting family, Kushare trains religiously at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, for bigger challenges that lie ahead.

“From here, I go to Indian Open meet in Pune, followed by the Interstate Championship, and my attempts to qualify for the World Championships will continue.”