LUCKNOW, May 1 -- Shahnawaz Khan, the rising long jump sensation from Uttar Pradesh, broke the U20 national record at the 24th National Junior Athletics Federation Cup 2026 in Tumkur, Karnataka last week, and is now dreaming big. If all goes to plan, he will attempt a top finish at the next World U20 Championships, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. "Now, my next target is to make a top finish at the next Asian Games and I am leaving no stone unturned to make it happen," said Shahnawaz after a strenuous training session at SAI Trivandrum on Thursday. Last Monday, the 19-year-old from Pratapgarh produced a breathtaking leap of 8.23m to clinch gold, eclipsing the previous mark of 8.10m set by Murali Sreeshankar in 2018. This monumental effort not only crowned him champion but also punched his ticket to the Asian Junior Athletics Championships and positioned him as a contender for the World U20 Championships, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games. The Junior Federation Cup, a pivotal event in India's domestic athletics calendar, witnessed a record-breaking spectacle on its second day. Shahnawaz's jump came amid a flurry of national records, with Tamil Nadu's pole vaulter Kavinraja S also elevating his mark to 5.12m. "From the very first jump, I was focussed on a top finish and I didn't mind putting extra effort into that jump, which helped me create a new national record," he said, adding, "Winning a medal at the Asian Games has been one of my biggest dreams since I began training in 2019." His 8.23m effort met the qualifying standards for multiple international meets, signaling India's deepening bench strength in horizontal jumps. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) lauded the performance in their official summary, noting how it bolsters the nation's junior pipeline ahead of a packed 2026 calendar. Shahnawaz's journey in sport hasn't been easy. His father drove a taxi, but Shahnawaz, having grown up in the village of Madhaipur in the Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, had no shortage of sporting inspiration. While his uncle Shahrukh is the current National Games champion in the 3000m steeplechase event, his other uncle Mohammad Hadees, a former national-level javelin thrower, is his inspiration. "I have seen athletes in my home since my childhood. My uncle was a javelin thrower in the Army and he would take me to run and exercise on the banks of the local river that flows near our village. Becoming a sportsperson wasn't a difficult choice for me," he said. As he grew older, Shahnawaz started taking part in the long jump. "I even tried my hand in javelin, and I also ran, but I ended up doing the long jump. I didn't like running because I was very skinny as a child, and I was worried I would become even skinnier if I ran," he said, adding, "I also couldn't do javelin throw because there aren't any real facilities in the area I am from, where we have inter-village jumping competitions." While Shahnawaz says he was fine with just taking part in the odd prize money competition, his uncle had bigger plans for him. His role in Shahnawaz's life only grew after the young boy lost his father to cancer when he was 10 years old in 2018. A year later, Shahnawaz was enrolled in the Sports Authority of India centre in Mumbai. Shahnawaz trained there for three years, winning a gold at the state championships, before his coach suggested he try for the National Institute of Sports in Patiala. While he did earn a berth there, Shahnawaz didn't last long following the coaches' decision there to mould him into a decathlete. "I used to do a lot of different events and I even had a personal best throw of 62m in javelin. I was also not bad in the shot put. But I never wanted to be a decathlete. It was too much work to train for so many events, and I never wanted to run the 1500m; it's too long," he further said. Now training under coach Bhupinder Singh, Shahnawaz has only gone from strength to strength. He's already improved significantly this year - he jumped 7.70m to win gold at the National Games in Dehradun, then cleared 7.90m to win the U-18 nationals in Prayagraj before his 8.04m jump in Bhubaneswar. "I still believe that I can do much better than 8.23 and for sure I will be pushing myself for that in the next meet," he said....