Sarvesh Kushare has spent much of his career crossing barriers that once appeared beyond the reach of an Indian high jumper. On Monday in Glasgow, the 31-year-old added another to the list.
Kushare became the first Indian to win a silver medal in the men’s high jump at the Commonwealth Games after clearing 2.25m, producing another landmark result during what has developed into the finest phase of his career. Jamaica’s Romaine Beckford took gold despite finishing with the same height, having cleared 2.25m on his first attempt. Kushare needed all three attempts, eventually soaring over the bar with his final chance. Neither man could clear 2.28m. England’s Kimani Jack took bronze with 2.20m.
Kushare had been flawless until the decisive height, clearing 2.05m, 2.10m, 2.15m and 2.20m at the first attempt before surviving the scare at 2.25m.
The silver takes India one step further from its previous best in the event. Tejaswin Shankar had won bronze at Birmingham 2022 to become India’s first Commonwealth Games medallist in men’s high jump. Four years later, Kushare has become the country’s first silver medallist.
But the distance between Kushare and Commonwealth history is considerably greater than the 2.25 metres he cleared in Glasgow.
From a corn-husk pit to jumping among the world’s best
Born on June 17, 1995, Kushare comes from Devargaon, a small village in Maharashtra’s Nashik district. His father, Anil Kushare, an onion farmer, had initially hoped his son would pursue civil engineering. Kushare chose high jump instead, despite having almost none of the facilities associated with the sport.
His school physical education teacher Raosaheb Jadhav spotted his ability and introduced him to high jumping. There was no professional landing mat available, so Jadhav, Kushare’s father and others improvised one using corn husks, agricultural waste, cotton and discarded clothes.
It was into that makeshift pit that a teenage Kushare learned to jump. He initially used the scissors technique and was reluctant to attempt the Fosbury Flop because of the risks involved without a proper landing facility. Gradually, with Jadhav’s guidance, he made the transition.
The next major change came in 2016 when Kushare joined the Indian Army after having previously failed in his attempts to get in. The move provided him with the stability, coaching and facilities required to pursue athletics professionally.
His progress thereafter was steady rather than spectacularly sudden. Kushare won the National Open title in 2018, became the South Asian Games champion in 2019 and cleared 2.27m while winning the National Games in 2022. He then took silver at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships with 2.26m before narrowly missing an Asian Games medal later that year, finishing fourth with the same height.
Paris 2024 delivered another piece of history when Kushare became the first Indian men’s high jumper to compete at the Olympics. His campaign ended in qualification after a best clearance of 2.15m, but rather than representing the peak of his career, Paris has increasingly looked like the starting point of Kushare’s biggest surge.
At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Kushare became the first Indian men’s high jumper to reach a World Championships final. He then cleared a personal-best 2.28m in the final and finished joint-sixth among the world’s elite.
He was already 30. What followed in 2026 has taken his career to another level. In June, Kushare cleared 2.31m at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, breaking Tejaswin Shankar’s eight-year-old national record of 2.29m and becoming the first Indian to cross the 2.30m barrier.
It was a mark Kushare had chased for years. With a 14-step approach and his final attempt remaining, he finally cleared 2.31m before subsequently attempting 2.35m. Less than two weeks before the Commonwealth Games, Kushare then finished third on his Diamond League debut in Monaco, clearing 2.26m. The result made him only the fourth Indian athlete after Vikas Gowda, Neeraj Chopra and Murali Sreeshankar to record a top-three finish at a Diamond League meeting.
And now comes Commonwealth silver. For an athlete whose career began with a homemade landing pit in a village in Nashik, the progression is extraordinary: Olympic pioneer, World Championships finalist, national record holder, Diamond League podium finisher and now India’s best-ever Commonwealth Games men’s high jump medallist.
Perhaps the most remarkable part is when it has happened. At 31, Kushare is not winding down. He is jumping higher than he ever has before.
