Idea Exchange: Tejaswin Shankar and Murali Sreeshankar on their friendship, CWG medals | Idea Exchange News,The Indian Express
Two of the country’s brightest young track and field stars, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, on their friendship, CWG medals lessening the weight of expectations, and how Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic gold inspired Indian athletes to think big and break mental barriers. The conversation was moderated by Principal Correspondent Andrew Amsan
Andrew Amsan: You both seem to bond very well. How close are you two and what kind of bond do you share on and off the field?
Murali Sreeshankar: I met Tejaswin at the 2014 Junior Nationals. At the time I didn’t know him very well. But after some months we met at the youth nationals. He broke the national record when he was still in the U-18s. He was the most exciting talent the country had seen. And of course, both of our names have Shankars and both of us are jumpers. I think that was one way we connected. Also, he used to motivate me a lot after the competitions. We are very happy that both Shankars could win medals for the country. Hopefully, at the Asian Games and even the Paris Olympics, we will be able to do the same.
Tejaswin Shankar: For me, the first weird interaction with Sree had to be at Vijayawada. These guys were wearing the Kerala uniforms, (green and gold) in 2014. Usually we have nationals in synthetic tracks but that was a one-of-a-kind nationals where we had the tournament on a mitti ka track (cinder track). That was weird in itself, but to then see this guy jump so far on a sand track — it was unbelievable.
I bond with people who are a lot like me in terms of personality. More importantly, he is a thinking athlete and that’s something that resonates with me. He thinks about what he does. You end up having more things to talk about other than ‘aur training kaisi chal rahi hai?’ (And how is your training going?). Because there is more to talk about, your friendship transcends the track.
Nihal Koshie: This is your first medal at an international competition as seniors. From an early age, people have expected you to win medals for India. Was there pressure of this expectation and now has that pressure been lifted?
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