Shaili Singh leaps to maiden Grand Prix medal, eyes spot for worlds

Making a stellar start to her international season, Shaili Singh jumped 6.65m to win bronze at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event, in Yokohama, Japan on Sunday.

It was the 2021 world junior silver medallist’s first major international competition, and though the jump was wind-assisted (2.1m/sec) it came in a competitive field that included world No. 8 and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Brooke Buschkuehl of Australia and Germany’s world No. 17 Maryse Luzolo.

Shaili got her best jump in her first attempt and led through the halfway stage before Maryse produced a wind-aided 6.79m (2.5m/s) in the fifth round to take victory. Buschkuehl, who has a personal best of 7.13m, won silver with 6.77m. Shaili's best jump with a legal tailwind (2m/s) was 6.59m. Japan’s Sumire Hata, the Asian indoor champion, came fourth (6.48m).

After an injury-marred last season, Shaili has picked up pace and will aim to qualify for the Budapest world championships in August. At the Indian Grand Prix in April, Shaili had cleared 6.76m which was second-best all-time in the Indian list, behind her mentor Anju Bobby George's 6.83m. The 6.76m mark is the leading jump in Asia this season, and seventh in the world list headed by Jamaican Ackelia Smith’s 7.08m. Shaili’s Indian GP effort also met the Indian federation’s (AFI) qualifying standard for the Huangzhou Asian Games in September-October.

“It was a Grand Prix meet and the field was tough, so I would say 6.65m is a good (international) season opener," her coach Robert Bobby George said from Yokohama. "She is in the range of 6.65-6.80m. She could have done better but today her technique was not proper.”

Robert, however, said the youngster was still learning and it was good to see her make a mark in an international meet. “She competed in the Asian indoor championships in Kazakhstan in February (6.27m), but this was her first big international competition. She is still 19, she was the youngest of all the participants. If you have to do well at the global stage it starts with these meets, and she managed well here.”

After the Inter-state meet, Shaili could not train for 15 days. “She had Covid at the end of April and had to miss the Junior Federation Cup. She has been feeling a bit of suffocation and breathlessness during training. The weather, crowd, was good here and it got her going.”

The win will help her get crucial ranking points for the world championships, starting on August 19. Shaili is currently 42nd in the ‘Road to Budapest’ rankings and must enter the top 36 to make the cut through world rankings. The performance in Yokohama will help climb a few rungs in the rankings ladder.

“There are still a few events before the world championships qualification ends (July 30) and the aim is to get rankings points. We are also trying to get into some Diamond League events this year," said Robert, who trains her at the Anju Bobby High Performance Centre in Bengaluru.

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