Bronze for Shaili at her first world-level international meet

Shaili Singh, the 2021 under-20 Worlds silver medallist, jumps a wind-assisted 6.65m to win bronze at the Seiko Golden GP

Shaili Singh opened her international outdoor season with a bronze at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, a World Athletics Continental Tour-Gold event, in Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday.

Shaili, the 2021 under-20 Worlds silver medallist who has a personal best of 6.76m, opened with a wind-assisted 6.65m (+2.1) and that was her best for the day. That kept the 19-year-old World No. 76, a SAI NCOE athlete coached by Robert Bobby George at Bengaluru’s Anju Bobby High Performance Centre, in the lead till the halfway stage before Germany’s World No. 17 Maryse Luzolo recorded a wind-aided 6.79m (+2.5) in the fifth round that gave her the gold.

Ausralia’s Commonwealth Games silver medallist Brooke Buschkuehl, the World No. 8 who has a personal best of 7.13m, took the silver with 6.77m.

Shaili’s series also included a 6.59m in the second round under legal wind conditions and the result in this category ‘A’ event should help her climb a few rungs in the ‘Road to Budapest’ rankings. She is currently in the 42 nd spot and only 36 can make it to the World Championships in Hungary in August. The qualification gates for the Budapest Worlds close on July 30.

“I was expecting something like 6.80m... her landing was not proper, there was a bit of rotation,” Bobby told The Hindu from Japan.

“Still this is a very good performance at her first world-class international meet. She now has the inter-State Nationals (in Bhubaneswar, July) and the Asian Championships (Thailand, July) ahead of her.”

Japan’s Sumire Hata, who won the Indoor Asians gold in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, in February was fourth in Japan with 6.48m.