U-20 World Championship silver medalist l ong jumper Shaili Singh has made it to the Asian Games after winning the gold medal at the India Grand Prix 4 at the Kanteerava Stadium, Karnataka. As Singh clinched the Gold medal, she recorded her best attempt of 6.76 m.
Shaili, after having a subpar performance at the Asian Indoor Championship in Kazakhstan, recorded an all-time second-longest long jump only behind Anju Bobby George. With this jump, she crossed the qualifying 6.4 mark set by AFI for the Asian Games. However, the athlete missed the World Championship mark by 9 cm.
Post victory, she said, "I aimed to achieve the Asian Games qualification in this tournament, and I have done it. My coach had the belief that I will achieve this."
Before this, Shalini had jumped 6.27 m at the previous tournament in February 2023, and 6.76 comes with a 0.28 cm improvement from her personal previous best of 6.48 m. Shalini trains under Robert Bobby George, who also is World Championships bronze medalist Anju Bobby George’s husband and coach. Shaili is now looking forward to breaking the National record.
Shaili said, "I have worked hard for this. I had a sub-par outing in Kazakhstan as I went just after the off-season. I have worked on my speed after returning from there and it has helped me here today," Shaili said.
She added, "I know this was very close to the national record and I am after that record. It feels nice to get close to it." "They both want me to break the record," Shaili laughed at the mention of her breaking Anju's record of 6.83m. With the Asian Games coming up next, Shaili is now training at the SAI centre in Bengaluru.
