I will compete in decathlon in Asian Games: Tejaswin Shankar

Birmingham: India's high jumper Tejaswin Shankar on Thursday said he has not been able to perform to his full potential owing to chronic tendonitis and it's now a "certainty" that he will compete in decathlon at next year's Asian Games.

The problem, however, could not come in his way of winning the country its first-ever medal -- a bronze -- in high jump at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Wednesday.

"Because with constant tendonitis on my knee, I have not been able to jump as much as I would like to. But I have been able to supplement my high jump training by doing a lot of long jump activities or doing hurdles," the 23-year-old said.

Tejaswin said he wants to compete in decathlon at next year's Asian Games.

"That is a certainty. I want to compete in decathlon at the Asian Games. That is what I am going to do, going forward," Tejaswin said.

Decathlon is a competition in which athletes participate in 10 sporting events -- 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m -- over two days.

"Even if I do not compete at decathlon, I want to continue training in decathlon because it really works for me."

The road to the CWG medal was fraught with obstacles for Tejaswin as the NCAA athlete and student of Kansas University approached the court after his name didn't feature in the list of athletes included in India's contingent.

Tejaswin won the high jump title in the United Satte in June this year with a jump of 2.27m and achieved the qualification standard for Commonwealth Games. But he didn't find his name in the list of Indian contingent as he didn't take part in the senior national inter-state athletics championships in India.

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