A centimetre short, Shaili settles for long jump silver
The 17-year-old raises hopes of gold with a 6.59m jump, but is pipped by European U20 champion
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: Shaili Singh was beaming, full of excitement as the scoreboard flashed 6.59m after her third attempt, taking her to the top spot in the long jump final at the world U-20 athletics championships in Nairobi on Sunday.
There has been a buzz about Indian athletics this month, and “catch ‘em young” has found a ring of endorsement since Neeraj Chopra ended India’s wait for an Olympic athletics medal with his javelin gold in Tokyo. In Kenya, India’s 4x400m mixed relay team (bronze) and Amit Khatri (10,000m race-walk silver) had won medals and hopes were high on Shaili on the last day of the global meet.
The 17-year-old Jhansi athlete has been hailed as a genuine talent after being spotted by Anju Bobby George, long jump finalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics whose husbandcoach Robert Bobby George has been training the Uttar Pradesh teenager in their Bengaluru academy since 2017.
On Sunday, Shaili produced two initial jumps of 6.34 metres before her best, which was aided by a tailwind of 2.2 metres/second—a legal wind limit of 2 m/s ruled out a record but the distance stood. The distance was a big improvement
on her 6.48m achieved in the national inter-state meet in June. A medal looked certain— Shaili had topped qualification—though with three rounds to go, gold was no guarantee.
And so it proved as Sweden’s U-20 European champion Maja Askag cleared 6.60m in her next jump, aided by a 1.5 m/s tailwind, edging ahead by one cm. Shaili’s next three attempts were two fouls followed by 6.37m that suggested fatigue.
In other results, Donald Makimairaj cleared a personal best 15.82m but missed bronze narrowly, finishing fourth. In 5,000m, Ankita came eighth (17:17.68) but she was upgraded to sixth after two athletes were disqualified. In the girls’ 4x400m relay, India (Payal Vohra, Summy, Rajitha Kunja and Priya Mohan), came fourth after clocking a season’s best
3:40.45secs.
Sunday belonged to Shaili. Anju Bobby George and Robert were impressed with the performance of Shaili, coming from a humble background, at a state meet in Varanasi in 2017 and took her to train in Bengaluru. Her personal best in the Nairobi final is a perfect step up in her development with the Paris Olympics three years away.
Shaili’s mother Vineeta Singh got to know of her performance only when HT called her up. “I was busy with family affairs (Raksha Bandhan), but it’s great that she won silver,” she said.
She can’t wait to see her daughter, who spoke to her on Saturday from Nairobi and promised to come back with a medal. “Only last night she promised to win a medal for
me, and she did it. In the last three-and-half years, we hardly get a chance to meet her as she is busy training at Bengaluru. I hope to meet her soon; I am waiting for her to visit home once with the medal around her neck.”
Before competing in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships, Shaili had not competed for almost two years due to Covid restrictions. But she broke the national youth record with a personal best of 6.48m.
“I was very inspired by Neeraj Chopra and wanted to win gold here,” Shaili said in a media interaction. “I was expecting gold, but silver ho gaya. Next time I will improve on it. In the first two jumps I was a bit behind the board (on take-off), so sir told me that my jumps are good and if I cover up then I will hit the 5.60 mark.”
Asked about the challenges she faced, raised by a single mother, she said her mother shouldered the burden in bringing up her three children. “Initially she faced a lot of problems in raising us, but she did everything on her own. She is very strong. Even yesterday she told me not to worry, that I will win gold and to have trust on sir (Robert).
“I did not know anything about athletics (when she started); even my mother had no clue. I used to do some running and I just saw a newspaper advertisement and applied for the sports hostel in Lucknow. I was there for five months (before moving to Bengaluru).
Robert delighted
Robert was delighted with Shaili’s performance. “She is a teenager but she has the determination of an adult,” he said. “The target was to touch 5.60 and she has always achieved the targets. She got 6.40 in qualification that we aimed for. Today, that one cm made the difference between gold and silver.
“She has got fantastic speed. She adapts very well. She understands and achieves the targets. She is learning very fast. We have been focusing on fundamentals. Once she is 18, I’m going to increase her workload and it will take her to the next level.
“She will take part in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games next year and will be a medal contender. She will have another year at world juniors. In another two-three years, she can have a go at Anju’s record (6.83m).”