2 min readUpdated: Jul 11, 2026 01:36 AM IST
Indian high jump national record holder Sarvesh Anil Kushare finished third in his Diamond League debut at Monaco on Friday. Competing in an elite field with World leader Oleh Doroshchuk,former Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim, World Championships medallist Jan Stefela, and Jack Kimani, Kushare jumped 2.26m to finish behind Kimani and Doroschuk.
World leader Doroshchuk won the title with 2.32m mark while Kimani finished second with 2.30m mark.
With his finish, Kushare became the first Indian to finish in top three at a Diamond League on the debut. He also joined a list of handful Indians who have finished at top three in Diamond League meets: Neeraj Chopra, Vikas Gowda, and Sreeshankar Murali.
The 31-year-old from Maharashtra started with a height of 2.16m and clear smoothly till the 2.26m mark but struggled to clear the 2.28m and ended his debut at Diamond League with a third place finish.
Sarvesh soaring high in Monaco! 🚀
Sarvesh Kushare clears 2.26m to claim 3rd place in the Men’s High Jump at the Monaco Diamond League! 🙌#IndianAthletics #AFI pic.twitter.com/i7oWX5WRsX
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 10, 2026
This is second big tournament for Kushare in the last two years after he finished sixth at the 2025 Tokyo World Championships. Ranked ninth in the world, only three jumpers have bettered Sarvesh’s mark of 2.31m this season.
Recently at the Inter State National Championships in Bhubaneswar, Kushare broke the national record by jumping 2.31m mark. Sarvesh Kushare lowered the national record set by Tejaswin Shankar back in 2018. “I have been chasing this mark for four years now. I jumped 2.27m in 2022 but stuck with this mark for so many years,” he had told The Indian Express.After jumping 2.27m in 2022 at the National Games, Sarvesh chased the elusive national record for three years before he improved to 2.28m at the World Championships.
“Whenever the 2.30 mark used to come, he used to think a lot. I also used to think a lot.Today, none of us were thinking and that is why it happened,” his coach Jithin Thomas said.
