hru Stadium, the high jump competition of the Indian Junior Athletics Nationals is all but over. 17-year-old Tejaswin Shankar has

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Blackwood, 28, has played the last three seasons in the San Diego Padres system, including the past two summers with Class AA San Antonio of the Texas League. http://www.grizzliesbasketballpro.info/Bryant-Reeves-Grizzlies-Jersey/ .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. Jaren Jackson Jr. Grizzlies Jersey . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Mike Bibby Grizzlies Jersey . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. Its 2pm on a hot Thursday afternoon in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. At the citys Nehru Stadium, the high jump competition of the Indian Junior Athletics Nationals is all but over. 17-year-old Tejaswin Shankar has already won gold. He did so with his first jump at 2.06m - two centimeters more than the rest of the field. On his eighth jump of the afternoon, Shankar has set the bar at 2.26m. No Indian, and certainly no class 12 student, has ever cleared that height. The Indian senior record stands at 2.25m, set 12 years ago.His feet clad in separate yellow and black cleats, a style made popular by World Champion Bohdan Bondarenko, the six foot four teen sprints towards the bar. On his sixth stride, the yellow shoe jackhammers into the turf. As his stretched right palm leads, Shankar twists his torso even as he rises until he is eventually facing skyward. He arches his back over the bar and then thrusts his hips skyward. Almost simultaneously, he tucks his head to his chest and now his feet lift over the bar too. The bodys form is perfect.?The black-booted left foot finally crosses safely and Shankar crashes onto the blue landing pad having just broken the national high jump record.Lets pause to grasp the scale of the achievement. The 2.26m cleared by the commerce student from Delhis Sardar Patel school, is the second highest by a junior in the world this year. Only Cubas Luis Enrique Zayas has leaped higher - with a jump of 2.27m. Shankars effort would have been sufficient to qualify for the final of the Olympics and enough for a silver at Julys Junior World Championships (incidentally won by Zayas).Shankar had qualified for the Junior Worlds back in February this year, when he won silver at the South Asian Games in Guwahati with a jump of 2.17m. However, he never went.?Just a month before, at the Asian Junior Championships, an event he was expected to dominate, Shankar injured his groin while warming up. Hoping it was only a cramp, he continued anyway. Competing in excruciating pain, he cleared 2.007m.dddddddddddd After three failed attempts at 2.10m, he was stretchered off the ground. The gold medal went at 2.16m, a centimeter less than what he had cleared just a couple months earlier.I was really upset. I wasnt selected for the Indian team for the Junior World Championships and that was a good thing.?I would have embarrassed the country there, he says. While he didnt think about it then, in hindsight, Shankar feels that his injury wasnt the worst thing ever. Once I saw the results of the competition, I saw that the bronze went at 2.25m. Back then I wasnt sure I would have cleared it. I realized that even if I went there, I wouldnt have been in medal contention, he says.Instead, Shankar says he focused on working on areas that he was lacking in. I was a lanky guy with speed but no strength. I was always going to be prone to picking up injuries, so me and my coach Sunil Kumar (who is a physical education teacher at Shankars school) just focused on getting stronger, he says.Instead of jumping, Shankar hit the gym and the track. When he returned to competition in September, the improvement was clear. At the Senior Open Nationals, he won gold, with a jump of 2.22m.At the junior nationals, following his successful attempt at 2.26m, Shankar made two attempts at 2.28m and another at 2.30m. He wasnt expecting to clear it but in what was his last competition of the season, he simply wanted to attempt it to get a feel of what it was like. Next year he says he hopes to qualify for the World Championships.For the moment though, he has his Class 12 pre-board and board exams to worry about. Or at least thats what his mother feels. I spoke to her over the phone. After the first couple of sentences, she didnt really pay attention to the record. She asked me when was I going to get back and start studying. I told her, at least let me feel good about myself for a little while, he says. ' ' '