Born on January 7th of the year 2004, Shaili Singh is an Indian athlete. Her forte is Long-jump, and she is the junior Indian National Long Jump Champion. She is ranked among the world’s top 20 long jumpers in the under-18 category. She was raised by a single mother who works as a tailor to fulfill her daughter‘s dream.
Shaili entered the women’s long jump final in World Athletics Under-20 Championships In Nairobi. She topped the qualifying round with 6.40 m. She is coached by Robert Bobby George at the Anuj Bobby Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
Recently, she claimed the women’s Long Jump silver with a personal best of 6.59m. She missed the gold by one centimeter to Sweden’s reigning European Junior Champion Maja Askag at the World Athletics Under-20 Championship in Nairobi on Sunday. After two jumps of 6.35m, Shaili, Singh who is just seventeen years old and the world’s top second Under-18 long jumper, gave her best shot by increasing her jump by 11 cm and led her to the top of the pack before European Champion Askag came up with just 6.60 m. This is Maja Askag’s second gold of the championship. Sweden’s under-20 European champion Maja Askag won the triple jump on Friday.
Shaili Singh Created History
Shaili Singh’s silver medal is the first long jump medal at an under-20 Championship. She did create history in the Under-20 World Athletics Championship. Behind Shaili’s success is the hard work of her mother and her faith in her daughter’s abilities. Her mother, Vinita, recalled how Shaili used to practice in the small backyard of the farm in Paricha village. She also stated the passion this little star had from the beginning, who used to cry if denied to go to the city for appearing in competitions. Her talent was much appreciated by the school she was studying in. Saraswati Shishu Mandir is the place where she started her practice initially.
“When Shalini was in grade second, she started showing her talent, which was further promoted by her school teachers Sushil Kumar Parashar and Chandrashekhar, who are the ones who took her out of Jhansi and gave her chance at various places like Bareilly, Varanasi, Lucknow, and Sonbhadra” said the proud Vinita, mother of star long jumper Shaili.
When Shaili participated in an inter-district championship in Visakhapatnam, where she made the national record in a junior category by jumping 6.40 meters, she was noticed by Anuj. In Patiala national trial competitions she claimed a record of 6.48 meters.
On the merry moment of her claiming the silver in the World Athletics Championship, Anuj Boby George tweeted “In 2017, Bobby and I came across a young girl from Jhansi. We Scouted her later that year in the junior national competition and decided to induct her into the Anuj Bobby Sports Federation in 2018”.
Olympic Javelin Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra also congratulated Shaili. “Many Congratulations Shaili, you have come so close to gold today and I am sure you have a long way to go…”.
President of District Athletics Association Asadullah Khan in an interview stated that he was present during the team selection for the inter-district national championship but had no idea Shaili would come such a long way. “Her efforts and hard labor were further polished at the sports academy of Bobby George,” said Asadullah Khan.
Before claiming silver in World Athletics Championships, she won the gold medal in the long jump in the U-16 category at the Junior National Athletics Championship in Ranchi 2018. She also broke the national record for the junior long jump by 5.94 meters. In the year 2019, she passed her record in under-18 by jumping 6.15 meters to win the gold medal at the Junior National Athletics competition in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, which was way ahead to qualify for participating in IAAF Under-20 Championship in 2020.
Bobby on Shaili
Recently, she won Silver Medal in the long jump at Under-20 World Athletics Championship, Nairobi 2021. She is a very determined and focused athlete with an invigorating zeal for sports “Shaili is like a tiger. She told me that she would fight till the last drop of her blood. She can tolerate a great amount of pain- mental and physical. Anuj was also like that.” said Bobby. Shaili is the breadwinner of her family. She supports her family with the money she gets in scholarships as her mother can not work as a tailor anymore due to her migraine.