Highly gifted long jumper Shaili Singh on Sunday missed out on scripting records with the aid of using a trifling 1cm as she settled for a silver withinside the U-20 World Athletics Championships here. The 17-year-old Indian’s private exceptional attempt of 6.59m became now no longer sufficient for gold as she was pipped to the submit with the aid of using Sweden’s reigning European junior champion Maja Askag, who controlled 6.60m for the pinnacle spot at the very last day of the championships.
A protege of mythical lengthy jumper Anju Bobby George, Shaili became main on the stop of the 1/3 spherical however the 18-year-old Swede overtook her withinside the fourth spherical with the aid of using a trifling 1cm which proved to be decisive withinside the stop. Mariia Horielova of Ukraine took the bronze with an exceptional soar of 6.50m.
India ended their marketing campaign with an exceptional ever medal haul of two silver and 1 bronze, though the country had received one gold every in the sooner editions -- with the aid of using Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra (2016) and quarter-miler Hima Das (2018). The combined 4x400m relay quartet and 10,000m race walker Amit Khatri had in advance received a bronze and a silver respectively on this championships.
Shaili started brightly with a 6.34m and repeated the equal distance subsequent earlier than her exceptional attempt withinside the 1/3 spherical. Her subsequent tries had been fouls and he or she couldn't get beyond the 6.60m in her very last soar and the teenager appeared to be distraught at lacking gold and danger to create records. Shaili, taken into consideration one of the brightest upcoming stars in Indian athletics, had crowned the qualification spherical on Friday with an exceptional soar of 6.40m.
The Jhansi-born athlete, who was raised with the aid of using a single mom who laboured as a tailor, currently trains at the academy of Anju Bobby George in Bengaluru. She is coached with the aid of using Anju’s husband Bobby George.
She had received the women’s long jump event on the National (Senior) Inter-State Championships in June with an attempt of 6.48m, her preceding private exceptional. She is the present day U-18 global No. 2 and U-20 national record holder.