Need to get the bronze monkey off my back: Tejaswin

Tejaswin Shankar doesn’t mince words. The former high jumper, now a two-time decathlon Asian Games medalist – the only Indian to do so – has become more measured in his words, but his candidness has lost none of the edge that makes him one of the more honest and articulate Indian athletes.

And on Sunday (September 27, 2026), the 27-year-old was brutal in his self assessment after finishing with a bronze here. “It’s a lost opportunity for a gold and for a silver, here I am settling for a bronze,” he began, before deciding to discard the veneer of cliches.

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