Tejaswin Shankar breaks Decathlon national record again, takes Asian lead

Wait 5 sec.

Asian Games silver medallist Tejaswin Shankar broke his national record in the Decathlon event at the 4th Wieslawa Czapiewskiego Memorial, a gold-level event of World Athletics and part of the World Combined Events Tour, in Poland on Sunday.After two days and ten events, Tejaswin ended up with 7826 points, bettering the previous national record of 7666 set during his silver medal win at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. Tejaswin, a high jumper-turned-decathlete, faced a competitive field featuring multiple European Indoor medallists.In the two-day event that started yesterday, Tejaswin registered a personal best in the very first event, clocking 11.02s in the 100m run to earn 856 points and finish seventh. Then, he jumped 7.57 m in the long jump, recording his season best and earning 952 points.Tejaswin recorded a 12.62m throw in Shot Put, one of his weak events, earning 644 points and finishing last in the field. However, he bounced back with a 2.18m jump in the high jump, earning 973 points.In the last event of the first day, 400m, Tejaswin clocked 48.87 seconds, his season-best in the event. At the end of the day, after five events, Tejaswin was leading the pack with a total of 4292 points.On the second day, Tejaswin started a time of 14.63s in the 110m hurdles, earning 895 points. While he recorded a season best throw of 38.28m in the Discus throw, the other competitors were far ahead, pushing him to third place overall.In pole vault, another one of Tejaswin’s weak events, he equalled his personal best of 4.10m, but the other competitors performed well to push him to sixth place with 6462 points overall.Story continues below this adWith two events remaining, Tejaswin needed 1,204 points to go past the national record of 7666.He threw 52.89m in the Javelin Throw, earning 631 points, further bolstering his chances of breaking the national record. In the final event of 1500m, Tejaswin clocked another personal best with 4:31.80s earning 733 points and improving his previous national record by 160 points.. He shaved off two seconds from his previous personal best of 4:33.96s in the 1500m event.This is the second international competition for Tejaswin in Decathlon this season. Earlier in May, he won the silver medal at the Asian Athletics Championships with 7618 points in Gumi, Korea. He started his season with 7603 points at the Federation Cup in Kochi, Kerala.With this finish, Tejaswin also took the Asian lead of the 2025 season going past 7639 points of Jiawei Wang of China.Day 1 Events:Story continues below this ad100m- 11.02s-856 pointsLong Jump- 7.57m- 952 pointsShot Put- 12.62m-644 pointsHigh Jump- 2.18m-973 points400m- 48.87s-867 points Day 2 Events:110m hurdles- 14.63s- 895 pointsDiscus Throw- 38.28m- 630 pointsPole Vault- 4.10m- 645 pointsJavelin Throw- 52.89m- 631 points1500m- 4:31.80s- 733 pointsTotal Points: 7826 points© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd