On a night of historic results at the Federation Cup, Tejaswin Shankar ran his heart out in 1500m, the last event of Decathlon and became the first Indian to cross the coveted 8000 points mark.
Tejaswin, who transitioned from high jump to combined events, is in the fourth year of doing Decathlon but the climb to this mountain of 8000 points started back in 2019 when he made a bet with his University buddy, Aaron Booth.
“Yes, you can say that my path for 8000 points started way back before I transitioned to Decathlon. Me and Booth would compete with each other in different events as part of fall tests during the school. I would always think what is special about Decathlon, I can also do it. But when I started doing it, I realized it is much more grueling and requires every bit of human ability to do combined events,” Tejaswin told The Indian Express in an exclusive interview.
Tejaswin, who competed in his first Decathlon in 2022 and scored 7592 points, is the 10th Asian ever to score over 8,000 points and ranks seventh on the continent’s all-time decathlon list.
Conquering Mount 8000
After making his own plans and working on improving the national record in 2025, Tejaswin decided to move back to the US as a teaching assistant and started training under Kip Janvrin, an American coach with 26 Decathlons over 8000 points.
“I was over analysing by sitting here and just doing sports. During my NCAA days, I used to do college and then do sports that would keep me fresh. I needed distraction and studying was that for me. So on advice of my wife Siddhi, I decided to move back to the US as a teaching assistant and started my masters in Kinesiology,” said Tejaswin.
After moving to the US, Tejaswin started training under Kip and the first thing they worked on was speed improvement.
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Speed improvement and three PBs
In Ranchi, Tejaswin recorded four personal bests (100m, Long Jump, 400m and 1500m) but had sub par performances in Javelin Throw and Shot Put.
“100m is the event that sets the tone for a Decathlete. It’s the first event and if you do well, you carry that confidence and momentum to Long Jump, which is again about speed. When I did 10.59s at San Angelo earlier this year, it made me believe that I can improve in the 100m,” said Tejaswin.
When he started training under Kip, the coach told him to improve his speed so a lot of things could improve automatically. “Kip told me that you’re an explosive guy but not crazy fast. If you improve your speed, it can improve a lot of your events as speed is the fundamental of events like Long Jump and Javelin,” said Tejaswin.
Tejaswin recorded a personal best of 10.77s in 100m and then went on to record another personal best of 7.67m in Long Jump. “All the acceleration training done in the US came into play as I got the 100m PB and it set the tone. Long jump is also about speed as I don’t have a technique. I just run and jump. I carried the confidence from 100m to Long Jump and Siddhi (a 100m sprinter herself) told me that you need to move two-three steps back from the board as you are running really fast on the runway, that’s when I realised that I am in really good shape today,” said Tejaswin.
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Strong on home turf
Tejaswin, who transitioned from High Jump to Decathlon, always uses his strength in the event to score more points. In the last event of the first day, Tejaswin jumped 2.25m and became only the sixth Decathlete in history to touch the mark in high jump.
“It felt pretty special that I’m only the sixth Decathlete to touch the 2.25m mark in high jump. It is my strong event which always helps me,” said Tejaswin.
In the other events of the day, Shot Put (13.31m) and 400m (48.29s), Tejaswin did decently to score a mammoth 4511 points on Day one and set himself on course of 8000 points.
Unpredictable Day Two
While his 4511 points were historic, the focus was on the second day where usually the Decathletes falter.
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Tejaswin started with a good hurdles race clocking 14.23s but had a below par show in Discus Throw with 37.90m. “I wanted to throw 40m in Discus Throw as I believe there is an improvement round the corner in this event. I was doing good in practice but it just didn’t come out at that time,” he said.
Pole Vault & Javelin drama
The third event of the day was Pole Vault, an event which can be a nightmare for any Decathlete given the technicalities involved in the event and the delay in the event due to technical issues added more agony to it.
Also, at the end of it, Tejaswin suffered a nasty fall that resulted in him getting a bandage on the knee.
“I’m extremely happy with the 4.20m in the Pole Vault. This is not the first time I fell in PV. Earlier in one of the competitions, I fell off the mat and almost suffered a concussion,” said Tejaswin. “Another issue was the poles were too small to carry my weight. I usually vault with bigger poles but I didn’t have them here and the poles here were small to support my frame as I am a big guy,” he chuckled.
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While his performance in PV was below his personal best, it didn’t really affect him. It was the poor throw in Javelin that slightly cast doubts on the 8000 points target. “I had the mindset of 70m in Javelin and did well on the runway also but the throw didn’t come only. I had two options after that- either sulk on the result or focus on 1500m,” said Tejaswin.
All the calculators came out as he was placed at 7306 points after nine events. “After the calculations I realised that I need to execute my 1500m plan and keep the body running. In 1500m, the fatigue can hit at the third lap and your body can shut down. It has happened to me in the past also,” said Tejaswin.
As the calculators got clicking and the pressure mounted, Tejaswin knew the final 1500m would decide everything. He dug deep, kept his rhythm, and didn’t let fatigue hit him crossing the finish line knowing that he had made history.
