Tejaswin Shankar heads to Europe for more events, aims for Paris Olympics

Commonwealth medalist high jumper Tejaswin Shankar will head to Europe to participate in continental tour events and aims for qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ (MYAS) Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) in their recent meeting approved his request for financial assistance towards the same.

Tejaswin wants to compete in Belgium’s High-jump Gala Elmos, which is a Category D event, followed by the International Athletic Meet, Hvezdy Nehvizdy in the Czech Republic which is a Category B event.

By competing at these Continental Tour events Tejaswin aims to gain important ranking points that will help him improve his world rankings and in turn, help him qualify for the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.

Tejaswin, who won the bronze medal in the High Jump at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games (2022) and later the silver medal in Decathlon at the Hangzhou Asian Games, is making a comeback to the High Jump, to qualify for the Olympic Games.

He is currently training at Kansas State College, USA under Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS) funding and will be heading to Belgium followed by the Czech Republic, later this month.

His airfare, boarding/lodging, and local transport costs among other expenditures for these events would be covered under TOPS funding.

The athlete from Delhi competed in Decathlon events last year breaking the national record and winning two international medals in Asian Championships and Asian Games.

However, he wants to feature in the high jump for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics and will have to either achieve the mark of 2.33m or qualify through world rankings.