![\"Tejas](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132651687,imgsize-132611,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/sarvesh-kushare-left-and-tejas-shirse.jpg\" "\\"Sarvesh")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTejas Shirse will be looking to open India\u2019s medal account in athletics as the track and field events begin at ther Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Monday. Shirse had broken the men\u2019s 110m hurdles national record with a time of 13.27s during Indian Athletics Series in Ludhiana last month, and has carried that form into the season after winning gold at Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar.He had also claimed the Federation Cup title in Ranchi and will be hoping for a strong showing in his maiden Commonwealth Games. However, all this still feels like a dream considering he was sidelined for more than four months after suffering a serious right ankle injury late last year.\u201cTo be honest, 13.27 wasn\u2019t even part of the plan. Even qualifying for Commonwealth Games wasn\u2019t something we were thinking about initially. But things worked out and I was able to achieve both,\u201d Shirse had said after his victory in Bhubaneswar.The injury marked one of the lowest points of his career, something he wrote about in detail in an Instagram post in March that began with the words, \u201cI hate it!\u201d The period was so difficult that, at times, he went days without sleeping and was \u201cangry and frustrated to the point of snapping.\u201d\u201cPeople kept talking about my \u2018potential\u2019, and I started hating that word because everyone said I had so much potential, yet I wasn\u2019t able to show it,\u201d he said.Shirse, however, kept believing in himself and, with the support of his team, emerged stronger. \u201cI\u2019ve come out of that phase as a much more mature person. I take every experience positively now,\u201d he said. \u201cLooking back, I\u2019m happy I went through that phase because it changed me.\u201dBesides his physio Nilesh Makwana and coach James Hillier, what helped him most during that period was patience. He believes the experience prepared him for \u201cthe battles on the track and in life as well.\u201dHe, however, kept much of it away from his family so as not to worry them. His coach, James Hillier, though couldn\u2019t have been prouder of his comeback.\u201cWe only resumed track training on April 13, and exactly two months later, on June 13 in Ludhiana, he broke the national record. That\u2019s an extraordinary achievement,\u201d Hillier said. What\u2019s going to be an even bigger achievement is if he makes it to the podium. It\u2019s challenging but Hillier thinks it\u2019s possible.Besides Shirse, the trio of Sarvesh Kushare<\/a>, Tejaswin Shankar and Aadarsh Ram will look to light up the evening session in the men’s high jump final. Kushare heads into CWG on a high after breaking the national record with a leap of 2.31m and is joint fourth on this season’s world list. Shankar, meanwhile, won bronze at the previous edition, while Ram has a personal best of 2.27m.In the men\u2019s long jump qualification, Murali Sreeshankar<\/a> and Lokesh Sathyanathan will be in action, while Gurindervir Singh begins his campaign in the opening round of the men\u2019s 100m. Gurindervir broke the national record in Ranchi with a time of 10.09 seconds and has sounded confident of putting up a good show on his CWG debut.<\/div>\n