Selva Prabhu and Tejaswin Shankar made encouraging starts to the 2026 athletics season with strong performances at the Thane Baker athletics meet in Manhattan, Kansas on Friday.

Selva Prabhu topped the men’s triple jump field with a best effort of 16.49m, clearing the Athletics Federation of India entry standard of 16.28m for the Asian Games 2026, scheduled to be held in Japan later this year.

However, breaching the AFI mark does not guarantee Prabhu a place in India’s Asian Games contingent. Under the AFI selection process, athletes must compete in a minimum of three domestic competitions – including mandatory participation at state championships.

The 21-year-old Selva Prabhu edged Guyana’s Trevon Hamer (16.42m) and Trinidad and Tobago’s two-time national champion Aaron Antoine (16.40m) on Friday. 

A silver medallist at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2022, Selva Prabhu owns a personal best of 16.78m set at the Venizelia-Chania International Meet in Greece in 2023, which was also India’s junior national record. 

Tejaswin Shankar, meanwhile, logged two personal bests in the men’s 60m hurdles, finishing fourth overall at the meet in the USA.

The Indian athlete clocked 8.16 seconds in the heats to qualify for the final before improving to 8.13s in the final race. 

The final was won by USA’s Kai Graves-Blanks, who set a meet record of 7.75s, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s Dorian Charles (8.00s) and USA’s Tyler Carroll (8.05s).

Shankar has enjoyed an upward curve since transitioning from high jump to decathlon in 2022. 

Last season, he improved his own national record by scoring 7826 points in Poland and continues to hold the Indian high jump record at 2.29m. He also claimed silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi last year, improving on the bronze he won at Bangkok in 2023.

At the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, Shankar secured another silver with 7666 points, breaking Bharatinder Singh’s long-standing national record that had stood since 2011.

Shankar also competed in the men’s shot put in Manhattan, finishing 11th with a 13.41m distance.