Tejaswin Shankar, a high jumper who won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, said that simply having his equipment when he arrived for the Inter-State meet at the Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar was half the fight won. Tejaswin, who just abandoned his "extremely well paid" job in Kansas City, US, arrived in Delhi around ten days ago to compete for India in the less glamorous but demanding decathlon for the forthcoming Asian Games. 

However, after arriving in the capital after his stopover in Finland, he had to wait an abnormally long time for his baggage, which was finally delivered to him after nearly four days. Officials had a conundrum to solve when they discovered that the shipment included a set of vaulting poles that would not pass via any conveyer belt at the Delhi airport. The pole vault is one of ten events that make up the decathlon. “I went there for four days and almost sat on a dharna,”

The two-time NCAA champion laughed. His poles were eventually freed from a different gate after a few phone calls to higher-ups. After completing his business studies at Kansas State University, Tejaswin joined the audit team at Deollite, “I have never faced such issues while traveling in the US but when I came here and spoke to Siva (current pole vault national record) he told me this is a daily affair for pole vaulters. My respect for vaulters has increased by leaps and bounds now”. There was still one obstacle to overcome before he could bring the poles inside the stadium when he got to Bhubaneswar for the inter-state competition that will serve as a selection trial for the 2023 Asian Games. 

Tejaswin stated, “My room is just a kilometer away from the stadium and the cab driver was asking for Rs 700. All Delhi bargaining skills, which were lying dormant in the US for the last six years, came to life”. 

Tejaswin is currently concentrating on breaking the national decathlon record, which he almost missed in April. He scored 7,648 points in the Jim Click Shootout tournament in Arizona, USA, in April—10 fewer than Bharatinder Singh's 2011 record for the country. He also went above the 7,500-point cutoff for the Asian Games set by the Athletics Federation of India during this process, but Tejaswin is not going to take any chances, especially in light of what happened in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games last year. 

Tejaswin remarked, “Primary goal is to finish first. My mind and body are completely set and I will go after the record but the only hurdle right now is the humid weather. But that is not bothering me as the conditions are the same for everyone. One thing I have learned from the CWG episode is that you have been just ready to perform at any time and under any circumstance”. Tejaswin is alluding to the entire selection saga that occurred before the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year when he had to take the federation to court to compete despite being the only high jumper to have met the AFI's qualification criteria. 

While he was watching the opening ceremony from his Delhi residence, his name was added at the very last second. Tejaswin was able to bring home the first high jump medal for India at the CWG despite the uncertainties and the fight against time. 

Tejaswin has returned to India following six years in the United States, where he worked for Deollite after earning his master's degree in accounting from Kansas State University. His visa was about to expire, but he chose not to extend it because he wanted to spend more time with his family and his elderly grandmother.