Commonwealth Games: Tejaswin Shankar pulled himself to stay in the present to win the bronze medal

Birmingham: They say the art of keeping the mind in the present, rather than let it flit either back or forward in time, is very difficult to master. Jumping as the mind does from one thought to another, restlessly, without being still for even a moment, there is no wonder that some call it the monkey mind.

On Wednesday evening in faraway Birmingham, Tejaswin Shankar channeled his mind to bring home a historic men’s High Jump medal from the Commonwealth Games. It is India’s maiden medal in the event, improving on Bhim Singh’s fourth place finish back in 1970. It is also India’s first track and field medal in the current Commonwealth Games.

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It would have been natural for his mind to be reduced – or elevated -- to a tapestry of thoughts, freezeframes from the month and a half or an impending place on the podium. And nobody would have blamed him if he had been overwhelmed by recent events, from attaining the qualifying standard of 2.27m in June to getting the Delhi High Court to ensure his selection.

Before he stepped up to compete, he had to tell himself to put the roller-coaster developments of the past behind. “Once I reached Birmingham, I had just one thing on my mind – to do the best I could and win a medal for India. There was no time for anything else,” he says. “Someone trusted me, and I had been given an opportunity. I wanted to make the most of it.”

He offered no signs of rancour when he met the media, virtually in India, and in person in Birmingham through Thursday. This was the greatest reflection of how he had moved on from the past and had just about allowed the enormity of his feat to sink in: not only is his medal the first in High Jump, but also is only India’s 29th in Commonwealth Games athletics.

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