Was that seven metres?
That was the big question for many as they watched young long jumper Shaili Singh produce a massive leap at the Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru last month. Certainly, it did look like the biggest jump the country had ever seen at home.
A couple of seconds later, to everybody’s disappointment, the red flag went up.
“Yes, it was 6.90-plus. It was very close, a foul by a couple of centimetres. Even if she jumps 7m, it will not be a surprise for me or Anju,” said Robert Bobby George, the head coach at the Anju Bobby High Performance Centre in Bengaluru, who has been coaching Shaili for the last five years.
This means the 19-year-old is very close to Anju’s national record (6.83m), set at the 2004 Athens Olympics in a fifth-place finish. A year earlier in Paris, Anju had won a medal (bronze) at the World Championships, the only Indian woman to achieve this feat.
“Shaili can break the record any time, it depends on the day and the mood. This is just the season-opener, she had a good series, everything above 6.50,” said Bobby.
Within reach
Anju, whom Bobby had coached to the 2003 Worlds bronze and who is now the mentor at the Anju Bobby HPC, is confident about it, too. “Shaili can break my record this year itself,” said Anju.
In fact, Bobby and his wife Anju had felt that Shaili would break the national record in Bengaluru that day. The teenager’s gold-winning jump measured 6.76m.
“Anju and I told her that she had to attempt to break the national record and qualify for the World Championships. That was my target and she made a wonderful effort,” said Bobby.
However, although Shaili appears capable of producing big jumps this season, Bobby is not taking any chances.
The automatic qualification standard for the Worlds, in Budapest from August 19, is 6.85m and the 12-month entry doors close on July 30.
So Bobby is hunting for quality competitions to ensure that Shaili makes the cut through the World ranking route if she does not make the automatic standard. There are 36 long jump slots available and Shaili is currently 39th in the ‘Road to Budapest’ rankings.
With an eye on the Worlds berth, Shaili will be competing in the Seiko Golden Grand Prix — a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event offering plenty of ranking points — in Yokohama on May 21.
It will be her international outdoor season-opener, and it will bring back plenty of memories for Bobby and Anju.
Anju had won gold in the same meet in 2004, a month after the Athens Olympics. She had shocked the then Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva and legendary two-time Olympic champion Heike Drechsler, who was in action in one of her last competitions before retiring.
“We are trying for the Diamond League, only the best get an entry there. She is not there yet, if she gets a good jump in Yokohama, it will be good,” said Bobby who first spotted Shaili’s potential at the 2017 Junior Nationals in Guntur, where she was fifth with 4.64m.
The young girl, from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh where her mother took to tailoring to keep the home fires burning, is now No. 4 in this year’s World list with her 6.76m. She is also Asia’s No. 1 female long jumper and occupies the top rung in the under-20 World list.
2023 goals
“The Asian Games [Hangzhou, Sept. 2023] gold and sub-20 in the World ranking are my goals for this year,” said Shaili.
Her progression over the last few years has been stunning. And Bobby attributes this year’s big jumps to the changes he has made.
“There is a paradigm shift in my training programme altogether and this is going to give results not only for Shaili but for the other athletes also,” he said. “We are focusing on key areas. Last year, because of Shaili’s [back] injury I could not do that. This time she was ready.”
The Anju Bobby Centre now has its own facility at Kengeri, where the 11 SAI National Centre of Excellence athletes, who are coached by Bobby, train. They go to the SAI Centre for strength and conditioning workouts.
“We have shifted the majority of our trainees to our new track in Kengeri. That in itself gives a good advantage, it’s a sort of exclusive team track, the ambience, light, aroma, the colour, everything sets the mood for training,” explained Bobby. “It imparts positive vibes every time and the athletes are more relaxed.”
This is a setting that could throw up another Olympic medal, either in Paris 2024 or in Los Angeles 2028. But the centre — the country’s only facility which has a World Championships medallist and the coach who produced that medallist training young athletes — requires more sponsors and funds, and quickly too, for quality equipment and manpower.
Fast learner, tough fighter
“The countdown has begun, we have 14 months left for Paris. Shaili’s age is her major advantage. She’s a fast learner and a good fighter. But she’s still a kid as far as the long jump is concerned at the global level. She is among the youngest long jumpers at the world level where you have the mighty Americans and Europeans. Still, that’s an advantage. She will have no fear and could be giving a scare to the others as she keeps improving,” said Bobby.
Bobby has tinkered with Shaili’s technique and that could be a reason for the big jumps.
“I have made some changes in her technique, she was leaning too far backward and [causing] a hyper-extension of her back that led to injuries. So, I have made some corrections in her body posture and in the body positioning just before take-off,” he said.
Anju is excited and proud that the talent she and Bobby spotted and are moulding is now a fine, world-class athlete, one who looks capable of bettering her mentor’s sparkling record.
In fact, Shaili seems to be a bit of Anju herself.
“This year, Shaili’s speed is very close to what Anju had in her prime. Her relative power is also somewhat equal to Anju. Only thing is, she has to stabilise her technique, get more mature to get not just one jump and for that she has to do a series of competitions,” said Bobby.
“She has to get ready for all the travelling, for competitions, for different time zones, different food habits. And then after the competition, when your enthusiasm dies, you have to come back to competitions again.
“She may break the record but it may take Shaili a couple of years more to reach that stature…for everything, understanding the game and game-plan. But Shaili is still young.”
Anju came to Bobby at 21, Shaili is an early bird. Bobby started training her at 14 and that’s a huge advantage for the young athlete. The long jump, for sure, has many interesting days ahead.
