Top Indian hurdler Tejas Shirse broke his own national record at Indian Athletics Series 9 in Ludhiana on Saturday with a timing of 13.27 seconds.
He also breached the Commonwealth Games qualification mark of 13.39 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India. Indian Athletics Series in Ludhiana is serving as the last qualification tournament for the Commonwealth Games scheduled in July 2026.
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Tejas lowered his previous record of 13.41s that he had clocked in 2024. His timing is the sixth best Asian timing of the season.
If Tejas gets selected for the Commonwealth Games squad, he will become first Indian male hurdler to feature in the event after Siddharth Thingalaya in 2014.
Running in the Final B of 110m hurdles, Tejas started quickly off the blocks and left the rest of the field behind with just Krishik M pushing him. Despite knocking the final hurdle, Tejas crossed the finish line at 13.27s while Krishik finished second with 13.55s.
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In the men’s 800m event, national record holder Mohammad Afsal P clocked 1:47.00s and missed out on the qualifying mark of 1:45.00s, potentially ending his hopes for CWG.
In the evening session of the event, Indian male javelin throwers would eye a spot in the Commonwealth Games squad with none of the throwers breaching the qualification mark of 82.61m at the Federation Cup in Ranchi last month.
While World Championship finalist Sachin Yadav is expected to miss the tournament due to an elbow injury, the likes of Rohit Yadav, Shivam Lohakare, and Kishore Kumar Jena will be in contention for the Commonwealth Games spot. Double Olympics medallist Neeraj Chopra is still recovering from his injury sustained last year at World Championships and is unlikely to be available for the CWG.
Aurangabad athlete Tejas Shirse was a budding gymnast before he took up athletics. (X/Tejas Shirse) 
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