Tejaswin Shankar's Name Added to Indian CWG Squad, Final Approval Still Pending

AFI eventually include national record holder in high jump Tejaswin Shankar to the CWG 2022 team.

Tejaswin Shankar currently holds the men's national record in high jump currently.

(Photo: Tejaswin Shankar/Instagram)

Indian high jumper Tejaswin Shankar has been added to India’s track and field squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG 2022), according to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in Delhi Hight Court on Wednesday.

AFI’s new announcement follows a fortnight of court battles between AFI and the 23-year-old who challenged the federation's decision to initially omit him from the Indian squad despite achieving the necessary qualifying mark required for selection.

The national record holder in high jump was added to the 36-member squad for Birmingham in place of 400m runner Rajiv Arokia. Arokia was named in the relay team provisionally as a backup for uncertain Amoj Jacob. However, Arokia lost his spot in the team after unsatisfactory timings during the trials held in Patiala on July 4.

Meanwhile, Tejaswin's participation in the CWG 2022 is still subject to receiving a clearance from the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). The last date of sending entries for the CWG however was set for 29 June so it remains to be seen if Shankar does indeed make the cut.

Tejaswin Shankar filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court, following his exclusion from the CWG 2022 squad.

The court, benched by Justice Yashwant Varma, expressed its displeasure at the AFI regarding their selection policy, during an earlier hearing on Tuesday. The whole proceedings went on for about one and a half hours. The next hearing is on 25 August in which the court will review the federation's selection procedure.

"Court has now kept the matter for 25 August for considering the issues which were raised by us regarding the discrepancies in AFI's selection process. Court said these issues will need to be sorted once and for all so that there is no 'national embarrassment' in future," added Bhatt. Tejaswin, who came across the court’s hearing in favour of him soon took to Twitter to express his delight and gratitude.