Shaili Singh, Anju Bobby George now have one thing in common - Robert Bobby George. He has been mentor and husband for legendary Anju and now has helped unearth and polish yet another talented long jumper for India. (More sports news)
On Sunday, highly talented long jumper Shaili missed out on scripting history by a mere 1cm as she settled for a silver in the U-20 World Athletics Championships at the Kasarani Sports Complex.
The 17-year-old Indian's personal best effort of 6.59m was not enough for a gold as she was pipped to 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.
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A trainee of legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George and her husband Robert, 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 1cm which proved to be decisive in the end.
Shaili won the long jump gold at the National Senior Inter-State Championships in June with a leap of 6.48m. She is world No. 2 in U-18 and is U-20 national record holder.
Shaili was discovered by coach Robert Bobby George in 2017 when she was competing in a junior event.
He saw the sark in her and soon roped Shaili into the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation.
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She has been training under the star couple since. Shaili is daughter of a tailor, Shaili and couldn’t even afford shoes for practice.
Shaili made amazing progress in last few years and is surely one of the youngsters to watch out for.
