Mumbai: Tejaswin Shankar, a decathlete, is juggling multiple roles - athlete, student, and teacher - as he prepares for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) and Asian Games.
Shankar, who recently jumped 2.26m in a Manhattan meet, has a promising start to the year, winning the heptathlon gold at the Asian Indoor Championships and scoring 7947 points in decathlon, a wind-aided personal best.
His biggest fear is sustaining his fitness till October, but he has a scientific plan in place with coach Kip Janvrin, involving competing in the Federation Cup, CWG, and Asian Games.
The periodisation timeframe between now and the Federation Cup and from there to CWG is similar, but the shorter turnaround between the CWG and Asian Games requires focus on recovery and channelising his efforts.
Shankar wants to 'push the envelope' and try different things in the training block leading into the Federation Cup, where meeting the CWG qualification mark should not be a tall ask for the national record holder.
The CWG is about trying to place Shankar in a different league of medalling in multiple events, while the Asian Games is more about an 'ego battle' for the 2023 decathlon silver medallist.
