India athlete Tejaswin Shankar made the country proud after he grabbed the bronze medal in the men's high jump final with the mark of 2.22m at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Wednesday. Shankar was tied with former world and CWG champion Donald Thomas from the Bahamas, but the Indian athlete ended up winning the nation's first athletics medal in the men's high jump event, as he made lesser fouls.
The national record holder cleared 2.22m to finish third on countback. Donald Thomas of Bahamas and England's Joel Clarke-Khan also cleared 2.22m but they needed more than one attempt to do it while Shankar was successful in single try.
The 23-year-old Shankar could not soar over 2.25m in two attempts. He then went for 2.28m in his third and final attempt in a bid to win a silver but failed. Before Shankar, the best position an Indian had achieved in men's high jump in CWG was by Bhim Singh who cleared 2.06m in the 1970 edition in Edinburgh.
Shankar had finished sixth in the 2018 Gold Coast edition with a best jump of 2.24m.
Shankar, who was added in the Indian athletics squad on the orders of Delhi High Court, has a season's best of 2.27m and personal best of 2.29m.
With PTI inputs