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4 min readFeb 8, 2026 09:39 PM IST
Shankar, who was leading on Day 1, continued his good form in the next three events -- 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m.(Credit: IIS/Instagram )
Tejaswin Shankar continued his sensational run in the combined events with a gold medal in the men’s heptathlon event at the ongoing Asian Indoor Athletics Championships on Sunday.
This was India’s only gold medal as they finished overall sixth in the medals tally. China topped the chart with 34 medals — 10 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze.
On the way of his gold medal, Tejaswin scored a total of 5993 points breaking his own national record of 5650 points from 2021 and the championship record of 5928 points from 2012.
Shankar, who was leading on Day 1, continued his good form in the next three events — 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m.
Never won a gold at a major championship before… always dreamt about it …. thought it makes you happy….
Set a championship record…
But I’m the saddest person today 😭 😭…. 2 days of labor and
7points short….. sports is cruel #asianindoorchampionships #tianjin #china
— Tejaswin Shankar (TJ) (@TejaswinShankar) February 8, 2026
In the 60m hurdles, Shankar clocked a time of 8.02 seconds to earn 977 points. With two events to go, the Indian athlete was nearly 485 points ahead of his nearest rival. Shankar was fourth in pole vault with a height of 4.20m. He earned 673 points to increase his tally to 5163 points. In 1000m, the last event of the day, Shankar finished second with a time of 2:43.91 (830 points) to increase his total to 5993 points.
Earlier on the first day of the Heptathlon, Shankar earned 844 points in the 60m dash with a timing of 7.11 seconds. While he recorded 7.53m in the long jump to add 942 points to his tally. In shot put, his best performance was 13.63m, which earned him 706 points.
In high jump, the fourth and last event on day one of heptathlon, the Indian athlete recorded a season best of 2.23m to collect 1021 points to move to the top of the table.
Despite gold, national record and championship record, the athlete from Delhi was disappointed after missing the 6000 point mark.
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“Never won a gold at a major championship before… always dreamt about it …. thought it makes you happy…. Set a championship record… But I’m the saddest person today…. 2 days of labor and 7 points short….. sports is cruel,” Tejaswin wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Shankar also holds the national decathlon (outdoor) record of 7826 points set last year in Poland. He also won silver in decathlon at the 2023 Asian Games held in China.
The performance at the Asian Indoor Championships are encouraging signs for his target of achieving 8000 points in Decathlon.
Ancy, Pooja, Toor win medals
Other Indian medallists on the last day were: Pooja (silver in high jump), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (silver in shot put) and Ancy Sojan (bronze in long jump) were other medal winners.
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Veteran shot putter, Tajinderpal Singh Toor claimed a silver with a season best throw of 20.05m. Toor’s other legal throws were 19.49m, 19.85m.
In the women’s high jump, Pooja clinched a silver with a height of 1.87m.
Ancy Sojan added a bronze at the long jump arena. Her best jump on Sunday was 6.21m. Her other two legal jumps were 6.02m and 6.20m.
Promising long jumper Shahnawaz Khan missed out on a medal as he finished fourth.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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