Mumbai, Sept. 28 -- For an athlete who couldn't even medal in his previous two Asian level meets, Sarvesh Kushare felt the high after his biggest leap at the recent Tokyo World Athletics Championships. "Yeh 6th place, chaar din baad sab log bhool jayenge (this 6th place, people will forget after four days)." Maybe not that quickly. Kushare went where no Indian high jumper had been before at the World Athletics, signing off from the final with a personal best of 2.28m for a joint-sixth finish. His performance was among the rare bright spots in an otherwise subdued show for India. That the 30-year-old from Maharashtra was able to deliver his personal best on track and field's most prestigious stage after a couple of years of stagnation brought out unusually animated celebrations from the army man. "I don't know why, but I got the josh (energy) from within," Kushare told HT. "I went into the competition thinking I have to do my best come what may. It had been a while since I did that anyway. I may have bettered myself by only one centimetre, but I'm happy that I did that in a world class competition." It was at such competitions that Kushare had been faltering since registering his previous PB of 2.27m in 2022. He bowed out from the 2023 Budapest Worlds qualification with 2.22m and a 2.26m at the Asian Games only fetched fourth place. At last year's Paris Olympics he could only go up to 2.15m and the qualification stage. At this year's Asian Championships, the previous edition's silver medallist was fifth (2.19m). "All of these competitions were bad for me," he said. "I hadn't given my best in any international event until now. I thought if I'm able to perform in India, I should be able to do so overseas as well. I was looking for answers, but also learning from those experiences." Kushare was also looking for answers to break out of the "2.25-2.26 region" he was stuck since the 2.27m at the 2022 National Games. "Sometimes I would miss training out of that frustration. Apart from my thoughts, people would also say things. Plus, I was nearing 30 - it wasn't like I was still young and learning things." Yoga, meditation and trusting the work he was putting in at his base in ASI Pune kept him patient and motivated....