Familiar name behind Shaili Singh’s mark in Patiala

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Last time, he won gold with his ward was in 2008. He was coaching the famous long jumper, Anju Bobby George, who by that time had an envious CV, with almost all major medals to her name (except Olympics of course). Thirteen years later, there was a hint of emotion when another ward jumped to gold in the senior national competition at the Punjabi University grounds in Patiala.

Junior champion Shaili Singh jumped to a junior record of 6.48m during the inter-state athletics championships on Saturday. Coach Robert Bobby George was quietly absorbing the moment. There was jubilation in his voice. “She had the talent and we were expecting her to do well,” said Robert. “She had a very good jump and now on she will only improve.”

Interestingly, with this, national records in junior and senior (Anju’s 6.83m) are against his name. The 17-year-old jumper from Uttar Pradesh broke the previous record of 6.30 set by Priyanka Kerketta in 2017. The distance is the joint-best in the world in U-18 category and joint-7th in U-20 — both records shared with Chinese jumper Yingying Huang 6.48m. The season’s best jump in U-20 category has been 6.56m by Italian Larissa Iapichino.

The lunge towards the record has its own twisty tale. Shaili has not gone home since December last year despite lockdown. When the second lockdown was announced and the hostel at the Bengaluru SAI centre was shut, she had to shift to Anju’s house in Kengeri. The athlete, who is part of the TOPS development group, usually trains at the Bengaluru NCOE.

Since mid-April Shaili had been training there. The only drawback is that there was no pit nor was there a synthetic track for her to run and jump. “We had to dig a pit but running on grass is a little tricky,” said Robert. “Since it’s grass, it’s slippery, and while jumping there’s a possibility of you to slip more. It gets worse if it rains.”

However, he is hoping she would be allowed to train in the SAI centre before the Junior World Championships in August. Anju, sitting miles away in Bengaluru, was closely following Shaili’s jumps. “I always say Robert Bobby is the best long jump coach,” she said and felt Shaili is fortunate because she started training under him from an early age of around 14. “I started when I was 21 or so. Besides, SAI has been very helpful,” she said. Their next aim is the world championships, where she is expected to be in medal contention.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand (11.62s) who finished fourth in the 100m women’s dash won by Dhanalaksmi (11.52s) of Tamil Nadu. Amasha de Silva of Sri Lanka was second while Archana Suseendran was third.

Select results

Men: 100m: Gurindervir Singh (Pun) 10.27s (Meet Record), Lovepreet Singh (Pun) 10.47;  Amiya Kumar Mallick (Odisha) 10.49s; 400m hurdles: MP Jabir (Ker) 49.78s, K Sathish (TN) 51.90, Pravin Kumar (TN) 52.77. High Jump: Tejaswin Shankar (Del) 2.20m; Geo Jos (Ker) 2.15; T Aromal (Ker) 2.15.
Women: 100m: S Dhanalakshmi (TN) 11.52s; Amasha de Silva (SL) 11.59; Archana Suseendran (TN) 11.60. 400m hurdles: VK Salini (Ker) 1:01.63; Khushdeep Kaur (Pun) 1:04.52; Nirmal Punia (Har) 1:05.68.
Long Jump: Shaili Singh (UP) 6.48m; A Sherin (TN) 6.26, Renu (Haryana) 6.17.+