NEW DELHI: Just two days before the Commonwealth Games decathlon, Tejaswin Shankar was unsure whether he would even step onto the track. A sudden flare-up in his leg threatened to end his campaign before it had even begun.But the 27-year-old had other plans. He produced one of the biggest moments of his career and won the bronze medal with 7,976 points, becoming the first Indian to finish on the podium in the Commonwealth Games decathlon.The achievement was even more special because, until the final days before the event, he had not expected to compete.“It feels good not to be returning empty-handed; I am very happy… if we look back to two days before the decathlon, I wasn’t even in a position to compete, given the sudden flare-up in my leg. I didn’t expect to achieve the result I did today,” Shankar said.“But I think the one thing I learned during that time was to take it one day at a time, focusing on one session, one hour, and one step at a time, and see where it led. That was the mindset I started the decathlon with. And after the 100m, we moved on to the long jump and shot put. So, for each event, it was just about that single throw, rep, or jump; I was quite happy that I could stay in the moment and execute,” he said.Shankar sealed the bronze with a determined effort in the final event, the 1,500m race, finishing in 4:36.19.It was his second CWG medal after the high jump bronze in the 2022 edition in Birmingham. His national record stands at 8057 points.Canada’s Damian Warner claimed the silver medal, while Grenada’s Lindon Victor took home the gold.
