National record holder decathlete Tejaswin Shankar will be considered for this year’s Asian Games despite not competing in the National Inter-State Senior Championships which begins here on Wednesday as he has been granted exemption from the meet, a top official of the national federation said on Tuesday.
Tejaswin, who rewrote his own national record during the Federation Cup in Ranchi last month, has been named in the 32-member Indian team for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (July 23 to August 2). He has sought exemption from the National Inter-State Senior Championships and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) granted him exemption.
“Yes, he has sought exemption from the National Inter-State in writing and we have granted it. He will be considered for the Asian Games,” AFI Planning Commission chairman Lait Bhanot told PTI ahead of the championships here.
“The gruelling 10-event decathlon is such an event which an athlete cannot compete twice within one month. You need a long period of recovery time, otherwise he will get injured.” Tejaswin had won a bronze medal in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The AFI had earlier announced that National Inter-State will be the only selection trial for the Asian Games to be held in Aichi-Nagoya in Japan in September-October. Bhanot also said that national 100m record holder Gurindervir Singh, who has also been named in the Indian Commonwealth Games team, has sought exemption from the National Inter-State and the AFI will take a call on that.
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“Gurindervir has also sought exemption and the AFI is yet to take a call on that. We will do that. In any case, the Asian Games team will be named on the final day of the National Inter-State (on June 28).
“The selection committee is the final authority to take a call on whether an athlete will be selected or not,” he said.
“Of course, he (Gurindervir) will have to compete before the Asian Games and qualify if he has to be in the Asian Games team.” The Asian Games qualification time for men’s 100m is 10.16 seconds, and Gurindervir had lowered the national record to 10.09 seconds in the Federation Cup last month.
Bhanot also confirmed that national record holder 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable is not in a position to compete after undergoing an ACL surgery last year.
‘Nothing wrong in Animesh Kujur competing for Odisha’
There were allegations that the No Objection Certificate issued to 200m national record holder Kujur, who originally belonged to Chhattisgarh, by Odisha to represent the state has lapsed, but Bhanot does not see any problem in it.
“As regarding the migration (of an athlete) from one state to another, both the states have to agree. In case any state is not agreeing, then the athlete can give representation to the AFI which is free to take decision whether the migration is allowed or not,” Bhanot said.
“And once he (Kujur) has gone to Odisha, then if he wants to go back to any other state, there must be some strong reason and the same process needs to be followed again.
“So one time migration is given, it is permanently till the time he does not ask for the migration to some other state.”
Published on Jun 23, 2026
