Tough battles in life are nothing new for young Shaili Singh. She was raised by her mother Vinita, a single parent to three children, who encouraged her to work hard to turn her dreams into gold. The wish list of the mother, a tailor by profession, and her talented daughter had included travelling by air and building a home.
On Sunday, at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, the 17-year-old lived up to her billing and battled the pressure-cooker atmosphere to win silver - she missed the gold by just one centimetre. India's new queen of long jump hails from Jhansi, a city that doesn't need much of an introduction in Uttar Pradesh.
"It was a tough battle for my mother in the beginning. She had to raise three kids as a single parent. But all credit to her, she worked hard to support us. She is very strong," Shaili said. "My mom convinced me before the final saying, 'Nothing wrong will happen and you'll win the gold'."
'Don't worry (mom). I will win gold next time'
Shaili's mother told her, "Don't be tensed, it will all fall in place as (coach Robert Bobby George) sir is with you...." Shaili said after winning silver, "Don't worry (mom). I will improve next time and win the gold." She proudly showed her shiny medal during a virtual interaction.
After World junior medals by Neeraj Chopra (2016) and Hima Das (2018) in the past, the Kasarani stadium in the Kenyan capital saw the emergence of another young Indian athlete as Shaili won India's second silver medal at the meet. The young Indians ended with a haul of two silver medals and one bronze.
"We didn't know much about athletics. Even my mom didn't know much about sports. I used to do a bit of running in school and it was my mom who saw an advertisement in the newspaper about selection trials for the sports hostel in Lucknow. She asked whether I wanted to go for it. I said yes and she took me to the trials. I did well and got selected," she said.
The 17-year-old, who trains at the Anju Bobby Foundation in Bengaluru, went into the title round as a favourite to win the gold but in the end her best of 6.59m, 11cm better than her personal best that came in her third attempt, won her the second spot behind Sweden's Maja Askag who touched down at 6.60m to complete a grand double of long and triple jump titles. Maria Horielova won bronze. Even if the Indian had touched 6.60m, the Swede would have ended on top as he was better on countback.
It was an exciting battle between the future stars in long jump as Shaili was placed third after the first round which saw her leap to 6.34m. She managed the same in her second attempt. By the end of the second round, the Indian junior record holder had slipped to the fourth.
But the pep-talk her coach, who had predicted that his ward would jump between 6.50 and 6.60m in the final, worked wonders as an under pressure Shaili, who went into the final as the topper from qualification round, came up with a big one. Running in strongly, this time with a little tailwind, Shaili used the board to the maximum and touched down at 6.59m to take the lead.
As the order reversed, and the top-8 was separated after the first three jumps, Askag came up with her best in her fourth attempt to leap ahead of the Indian. Shaili fouled her fifth and sixth jumps. She managed a leap of 6.37m in her last, but that was not enough.
Maikmairaj, women's relay team end fourth
In the men's triple jump, Donald Makimairaj was in medal contention managing a personal best of 15.82m but in the end settled for the fourth place. India also came fourth in women's 4x400m relay while Ankita did a bit of front running in women's 5000m before moving out of medal race.
