High jumper Tejaswin wins first Big12 title in USA, equals national record

India's Tejaswin Shankar won the men's high jump title at the Big12 collegiate athletic meet with a national record-equalling leap in Texas, USA.

Appearing for the Kansas State University, Tejaswin cleared a season best 2.28m in his final attempt to equal his national record set in the 22nd Federation Cup in Patiala last year.

However, Tejaswin's personal best is 2.29m, cleared in April last year at the Texas tech invite.

Tejaswin, thus, became the sixth Big12 high jump champion from Kansas State University and eight in the history of the collegiate meet.

"Another gr8 meet with a clutch final attempt jump to win the @Big12Conference title also equalling my Indian NR on its 1st anniversary! Chasing consistency which seems to be playing tag with me. But I'll get it soon as I am a 400m runner too!" the Indian tweeted.

Tejaswin, 20, is a gold medallist at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games besides winning a silver at the 2016 South Asian Games.

He rose to prominence when he broke Hari Shankar Roy's 12-year-old national record of 2.25 metres with a jump of 2.26 metres at the Junior National Championships in Coimbatore in 2016.