Shaili Singh, a 19-Year-Old Long Jumper Wins Bronze at Golden Grand Prix with a 6.59m Leap

Shaili Singh has a strong series in Japan, winning bronze and without a foul making it to 6.41m, 6.36m, and two 6.35m jumps. Her personal best is however 6.76m.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: 2023-05-22 09:20:28

Shaili Singh, the long jumper grabbed a bronze at Yokohama in her first major senior outdoor international event at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix. She is a silver medalist at Under-20 World Championship at 19 years of age itself. She upscaled her position nu jumping 6.65 meters in the first round because of the help of the wind. However, in her second registered legal leap, she made it 6.59 meters. 6.76m is her personal best but in Japan as well she had some good takes one of 6.41m and 6.36m, and two of 6.35m without a foul.

Being the youngest competitor in the long jump for women at Yokohama, Shaili was put in the first major senior assignment the World Athletics Continental Tour-Gold event. In the fifth round, Maryse Luzolo from Germany won gold with 6.79m, and with 6.77 helped Brooke Buschkuehl win silver, who has also a silver medal win at Commonwealth Games. Finishing fourth, Sumire Hara, the Asian Indoor Champion from Japan made it to 6.48m.

After Shaili’s bronze win in Category ‘A’ at Yokohama, the athlete can perhaps make it to World Championships in August, going to be held in Budapest. The next step for her is Inter-State Championships, Bhubaneswar, and the Asian Athletics Championship, Thailand. Shaili presently holds 42^nd rank and needs to make it to 36^th or higher to enter the World Championship.

With a 6.27m jump, she began at the Asian Indoor Championships and then went on to enhance by jumping 6.76 m last month at the Grand Prix 4 in Bengaluru where she finished first. The achievement placed Shaili in second after Anju Bobby George on India’s all-time list. And Robert the coach of Shaili is the husband of Anju.

Robert said that for the tender age of 19, Shaili had performed well and hoped that her technique will improve and get stronger ahead. After all, it is about being consistent and not just breaking the record of Anju. The young athlete has missed about 8 months in the competition because of a lower spinal stress fracture, which occurred 2021 World Under-20 Championships.

And now with a great beginning, Shaili is back in action with a bronze in Yokohama. Earlier she had to spend most of her time in physiotherapy and could not jump or lift heavy weights because of loss in muscle mass. It affected her mental health as well and Robert had to make sure that did not drive her into a state of negativity.

Shaili registered jumps of 6.58m, 6.76m, 6.64m, and 6.66m at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. She also made two fouls. She tweeted that she is happy to share that she won her first major Grandprix medal (senior), a bronze in Japan. She thanked her well-wishers, coach, TOPs, sponsors, Sai Bangalore NCOE, AFI, Anju Bobby George Sports Foundation, and OGQ.