Tejas Shirse and Sarvesh Kushare headline opening day of India Athletics Challenge Commonwealth Games News
Tejas Hills will be looking to open India Athletics’ medal account as the Commonwealth Games athletics events in Glasgow begin on Monday. Hills broke the national record in the men’s 110m hurdles with a time of 13.27 seconds at the India Athletics Series in Ludhiana last month and continued that form into the current season after winning a gold medal at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar.He also won the Fed Cup title in Ranchi and will be looking to put in a strong performance in his maiden Commonwealth Games. However, it all still feels like a dream considering he was sidelined for more than four months after suffering a serious right ankle injury late last year.“To be honest, 13.27 wasn’t even part of the plan. Even qualifying for the Commonwealth Games wasn’t what we originally considered. But things went well and I was able to achieve both,” Hills said after the win in Bhubaneswar.The injury marked one of the lowest points of his career, which he detailed in an Instagram post in March, which began with: “I hate it!” It was a difficult time, with him sometimes staying up for days on end and “angry and frustrated to the point of collapse.”“People kept talking about my ‘potential’ and I started to hate that word because everyone said I had a lot of potential but I couldn’t show it,” he said.However, Hills always believed in herself and became stronger with the support of her team. “I’ve grown out of that phase and become a more mature person. I now approach every experience positively,” he said. “Looking back, I’m glad I went through that phase because it changed me.”Apart from his physio Nilesh Makwana and coach James Hillier, the thing that helped him the most during that period was patience. He believes the experience prepared him for “the battles on the track and in life.”However, he kept much of it hidden from his family so as not to worry them. However, his coach James Hillier is immensely proud of his comeback.“We only resumed track and field training on April 13 and exactly two months later, on June 13, he broke the national record in Ludhiana. It was a remarkable achievement,” Hillier said. If he gets on the podium, it will be an even bigger achievement. It’s challenging, but Hillier thinks it’s possible.In addition to Shirse, the trio Savish KusareTejaswin Shankar and Aadarsh Ram will shine in the evening session of the men’s high jump final. After breaking the national record with a jump of 2.31m, Kushare entered the CWG with a jump of 2.31m and tied for fourth in the world rankings this season. Meanwhile, Shankar won a bronze medal in the previous edition, while Ram achieved a personal best of 2.27m.In the men’s long jump qualifying competition, Murali Srisankar Lokesh Sathyanathan will compete while Gurindervir Singh will start his campaign in the first round of the men’s 100m. Gurindervir, who broke the national record with a time of 10.09 seconds in Ranchi, sounds confident of delivering a strong performance in his CWG debut.
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