Kamal Ghorui
KOCHI: In the geometry of long jump, progress is seldom linear. For Shahnavaz Khan, the trajectory has curved sharply upward. Nowhere was that more evident than 11 days ago at the U-20 Federation Cup in Karnataka’s Tumkur, where the 18-year-old soared to 8.23m to eclipse Murali Sreeshankar‘s junior national record of 8.20m recorded in 2018. “Sreeshankar bhaiyya congratulated me after my jump in Tumkur. He is my senior, someone whom I respect,” Shahnavaz tells TOI.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!For Shahnavaz, the surge didn’t begin in Tumkur. The telltale signs were evident in Bhubaneswar last year, where the Uttar Pradesh native breached the 8-m barrier for the first time, landing at 8.04m at the Continental Tour. Bhubaneswar has since assumed considerable significance for the Pratapgarh teen.
“It is my lucky venue where I recorded my two personal best scores. That’s where I first crossed 8m. Now, I want to return to Bhubaneswar and break the Tumkur mark at the Inter-State,” he explains.The path from Tumkur runs through a demanding calendar. The Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar in June doubles as the final selection trials for the Asian Games in Japan this September.Should he qualify, the Junior World Championships in Eugene, USA, will follow in August, with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as the distant but fixed horizon the entire programme is aligned toward. “My immediate goal is to qualify for the Asian Games and return with a medal around my neck,” Shahnavaz says.Behind his rise is coach Bhupinder Singh, whose approach marries scientific temper and patience with a refusal to box athletes into templates.Their partnership began in 2024, when Shahnavaz arrived raw and eager. The transformation since has been physical and psychological. “Today, he is taller and more aware of his body,” Singh notes. “The biggest change is in his mind.”That mental clarity is being forged at the SAI Centre of Excellence in Thiruvananthapuram, where training sessions are built with near-surgical intent. Refining sprint mechanics, sharpening take-off drills, and layering explosive strength through heavy lifts and endurance work. Singh reckons his ward can now operate consistently in the 8.20m range, with 8.50m as the next frontier.What no training matrix fully captures, though, is what Singh calls junoon. There is a story from a session in Thiruvananthapuram earlier this year that Singh still talks about.Shahnavaz had already completed his prescribed run-throughs for the day, but the teen pushes himself for one last burst of energy because the last jump just didn’t feel right. It’s this searing intensity that surfaces most vividly in high-octane competitions.On Shahnavaz’s record in Tumkur, Singh offers: “Records are always meant to be broken.” And if the 18-year-old’s arc holds, he intends to keep proving it. “We are working toward LA 2028,” Singh adds. “That’s the long-term goal.”For Shahnavaz, the horizon keeps getting closer: from a sandpit in Bhubaneswar to a medal waiting to be won in Japan. The geometry is curving upward.
