In terms of a season-ending performance, Tejaswin Shankar couldn't have done any better. On Saturday, at the historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregan, the 19-year-old high jumper won perhaps the most prestigious medal of his career. He cleared a height of 2.24m and became only the third Indian to win the NCAA Championships -- the premier collegiate tournament in the USA.

It had been a surreal moment for the freshman student of Kansas State University. He had celebrated his win by ripping off his bib and yelling a few typically Delhi expletives. The 11,000-strong crowd had only cheered along. "I'm used to having Indians cheer for me," he says over the phone. "But it was really cool to have an American crowd cheering for an international athlete, tagging my pictures on Instagram and taking my autographs."

Now there was much to look forward to. In a post-competition interview, he mentioned his long-delayed plans to visit Disneyland. He's looking forward to spending some time with his family -- his mother and sister have flown over from New Delhi. There's also the less-pleasant summer break classes he will have to take to keep up his grades that have slipped as a consequence of competing as much as he has through the season. "When I finished my competition, I realized I didn't need to have a protein drink because I don't have any more competition for the rest of the year," he says.

"On each of my jumps [on Saturday], I was landing on my neck and not my upper back. I must have landed this way perhaps a hundred times this season."

And yet even as his season winds down, there remains the tiniest hint of dissatisfaction. He knows he will not be going for the Asian Games. A few weeks back, he had informed the Indian federation that he wouldn't be taking part in the continental tournament. While it was known that the federation's diktat of making him compete in a selection trial later this month without considering his form -- he broke his own indoor and outdoor National records twice this season -- was a dubious one, Shankar's decision to opt out of the Asian Games still came as a surprise. "It wasn't easy to make such calls," he says. "No one wants to miss something like the Asian Games. Furthermore, as an Indian athlete I knew that there weren't 30 people I was competing with for a spot. I would have been able to qualify. But these are the decisions you have to take."

He was reminded of the reason he pulled out, even in the midst of his triumph on Saturday evening. "On each of my jumps, I was landing on my neck and not my upper back," he says. "I must have landed this way perhaps a hundred times this season. Right now my neck is jammed up and I have to get it massaged to reduce the stiffness."

The awkward landing posture has crept into his technique over the last few months. "I wasn't having this problem before," he says. "But that's because I wasn't jumping this high this consistently in the past. In order to clear greater heights, I need to keep my back arched a lot longer over the bar. But once I do that, it's hard for me to pull up my neck in time before I hit the mat."

Tejaswin Shankar is only the second Indian track and field athlete to receive a full scholarship to a college in the USA.. Tejaswin Shankar

These are problems he has to solve now. "I can't wait for it to get worse," he says. "So I had to take the time to sort out this issue now. If I had to come to India for the Inter-State [which would serve as the selection trials] and then take part in the Asian Games, that would mean nearly three months in which I wouldn't be able to work on this problem."

Indeed, his coach Cliff Rovelto had advised him as much. "He told me if I went for the Asian Games, I would only have another three months to prepare for the whole of the next year," Shankar says. "And 2019 is a crucial year with the World Championships." And while there were doubts about having to miss what would be his maiden Asiad, Shankar says he eventually deferred to his coach. "I came to the USA because I trusted coach Rovelto and wanted to learn from him. If I've come so far, I probably should listen to him rather than make guesses of what I should do by myself."

But that isn't to say that Shankar is simply doing what he's told. He has learned plenty on his own in his first year on the collegiate circuit. He has learned, for example, how to deal with the rains he was jumping in Eugene. "I've learned it's nearly impossible to run in soaking wet socks," he says. "So I make it a point to carry three pairs that I can change into."

"I've got a lot more comfortable with jumping now. At the CWG, the crowd would cheer for the local athlete and be nearly silent for me. Here at the NCAA Championships, I got the crowd clapping for me."

He has also managed to figure out how to deal with a large crowd. At the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in April, he had seemed flustered by the massive audience at Gold Coast, finishing sixth in the competition. As he has competed regularly at the collegiate level, that nervousness has faded away. "I've got a lot more comfortable with jumping now," Shankar says. "At the CWG, the crowd would cheer for the local athlete and be nearly silent for me. Here at the NCAA Championships, I got the crowd clapping for me. I'm learning to enjoy that now."

That experience has been built up because of competing as regularly as he did. "The most important lesson I've learned so far has been how to compete while training heavy," Shankar says. "While doing that I managed to jump 2.28m at the Federation Cup [in April] and then 2.29m [in May after the CWG]. That showed just how good I was physically."

That high mark of 2.29m though reminds him just how close he got to another target he had set at the start of the year. "I've been chasing 2.30m all through this year," Shankar says. "I've come close [on Saturday, his heel clipped the bar on the descent in his second attempt at 2.30m] but I've always just missed out. But that's the nature of the sport."

Even when he does manage to clear 2.30m, as many expect he will, Shankar is reminded of the challenges that are up ahead -- much as his landing is proving currently. "High jump is a sport which will always beat you," Shankar says. "There will always be a height that you will miss or a height you will regret not going for in a competition. And as I jump higher, the number of challenges will only increase."