Savish Kushara Became the first Indian to win a silver medal in the men’s high jump event at the Commonwealth Games after finishing second in Glasgow on Monday.The 31-year-old national record holder won the silver medal with a distance of 2.25m. Romaine Beckford of Jamaica won gold and Jack Kimani of England won bronze with a long jump of 2.20m.After clearing 2.25m, all attempts by Kusshare and Beckford at 2.28m failed. Beckford won the gold medal after a countdown and Kusare won the silver medal.Another Indian participant, Adarsh Ram, finished fifth with a throw of 2.15m.Prior to this, Tejaswin Shankar was the only Indian to win a medal in the men’s high jump event at the Commonwealth Games and bagged a bronze medal at the 2022 Birmingham Olympics. Kushale has now become the first Indian to win a silver medal in the event.Tejaswin also competed on Monday but retired after failing in his first attempt at 2.05m. It’s a precautionary measure as he plans to compete in the men’s decathlon starting Thursday.The 27-year-old Tejaswin, whose personal best is 2.29m, has mainly focused on the decathlon in the past two years and has not regularly participated in individual high jump events.Library shares from Devgaon village in Nashik district of Maharashtra. The son of an onion farmer, he spent his early years training using makeshift landing pits made of corn husks, cotton and agricultural waste, prepared by his father, who was also his childhood coach.Earlier this month, Kushale became the first Indian high jumper to reach the podium at a Diamond League event. In his debut in Monaco, he finished strongly in third place with a throw of 2.26m.Last month, he won the gold medal at the National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar, setting a new national record of 2.31 crore.Kushale became the fourth Indian athlete to feature in the top three of the Diamond League after javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, long jumper Murali Srishankar and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda.
