Highly-talented long jumper Shaili Singh on Sunday missed out on scripting history by a mere 1 cm as the Indian settled for Silver medal in the U-20 World Athletics Championships here.
The 17-year-old Indian’s personal best effort of 6.59m was not enough for the Gold medal as she was pipped at the post by Sweden’s reigning European junior champion Maja Askag, who managed 6.60m for the top spot on the final day of the championships.
A protege of legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George, Shaili was leading at the end of the third round but the 18-year-old Swede overtook her in the fourth round by a mere 1 cm, which proved to be decisive in the end.
“I could have jumped farther than the 6.59m and won the Gold. My mother had told me about winning Gold and national anthem being sung in the stadium (but I could not do it),” an emotional Shaili said after the race.
“I am just 17, I want a Gold in next U20 World Championships (in Cali, Colombia). There is also Asian Games and Commonwealth Games next year and I want to do well in those events.”
India ended their campaign with a best ever medal haul of 2 Silver and 1 Bronze, though the country had won one gold each in the earlier two editions — by Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra (2016) and quartermiler Hima Das (2018).
Shaili began brightly with a 6.34m and repeated the same distance next before her best effort in the third round. Her next two attempts were fouls and she could not get past the 6.60m in her final jump and the youngster seemed to be distraught at missing a Gold and a chance to create history.
In men’s triple jump, Donald Makimairaj missed the Bronze by 3cm as he produced his personal best of 15.82m but had to be content with a fourth-place finish.