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The 2021 World U20 (or Junior) athletics championships saw a visible improvement among Indian athletes as the likes of Shaili Singh, Amit Khatri and Priya Mohan displayed the potential of their capabilities on the world stage. The Indian team won a total of three medals, including 2 silver medals. It came courtesy of Shaili Singh in the women's long jump and Amit Khatri in the men's 10,000 meter race walk event. They also won a bronze medal in the mixed team 4*400 meters relay event.
Although countries like USA, Great Britain, Germany and China skipped this biennial event in Nairobi, the performance of quite a few Indian athletes was par-excellent. The likes of Shaili Singh and Amit Khatri would have won a medal even if the athletes from the aforementioned countries would have participated. Thus, the achievements of the Indian junior athletes at the recently concluded World U20 championships should not be undermined and one can draw a lot of inspiration out of it.
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India's best performance of the championships was arguably delivered by long jumper Shaili Singh on the last day of the biennial event. Shaili Singh went into the World U20 championships with a best jump of 6.48 meters in 2021. She was ranked outside the top 10 in the top lists for the long jump among U20 athletes in the lead up to the world championships. Among the athletes that were going to participate in Nairobi, she was ranked 5th behind Tessy Ebosele of Spain, Arianna Battistella of Italy, Mariia Horielova of Ukraine and Anna Matuszewicz of Poland.
Eventual gold medalist Maja Askaj of Sweden, too, had unleashed a wind-aided leap of 6.80 meters in July with a tail-wind of +2.2m/s. Although Shaili Singh consistently jumped over 6.40 meters this season, she was nowhere close to her rivals in the lead-up to Nairobi.
How Shaili Singh surprised her rivals in Nairobi?
The 17-year-old prodigy from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh has been training under the supervision of Indian long jump national record holder Anju Bobby George and his husband Robert Bobby George since 2018. She has strained every nerve in these last few years to become India's best long jumper. She rose up the senior ranks after winning a gold medal at the 2021 National Interstate senior athletics championships in Patiala with a best effort of 6.48 meters.
At the National U20 championships, Shaili Singh produced yet another 6.40 meters jump to win a gold medal. Going into the World Championships, she was certainly high on confidence but the lack of international exposure was a cause for concern. Most of her rivals had been competing internationally in tournaments like the European U20 championships.
However, Shaili Singh silenced all her critics in the qualification rounds of the women's long jump event as she stood atop of the ladder with her best effort of 6.40 meters. Shaili's effort was well above the automatic qualification mark of 6.35 meters and she was one of the only three athletes to breach the mark and qualify for the finals slated for 22nd August, 2021.
All of a sudden, Shaili Singh became a favorite to win a medal in the women's long jump event after her performance in the qualification rounds. For the finals, she started with a rather conservative effort for her first couple of rounds. She coincidentally leapt to a similar distance of 6.34 meters in her first two attempts. She was lying in the dreaded 4th spot after two rounds of the finals.
However, a determined Shaili Singh produced the best jump of her career with an effort of 6.59 meters in the third round to leapfrog to the gold medal position in the finals. Unfortunately, a tailwind of +2.2 m/sec meant that this effort would not be ratified as her personal best as the permissible wind speed for an effort to be ratified in the record books is 2 m/sec in either direction (Rule 260.14 of the IAAF competition rules 2016-2017) but in hindsight, Shaili Singh would have been content with taking the lead.
At the halfway stage of the event, Shaili Singh was sitting pretty with a significant 9 centimeters gap over her Ukrainian rival Mariia Horielova. However, European U20 champion Maja Askag of Sweden jumped to a distance of 6.60 meters in the 4th round to overtake Shaili by a single centimeter. Shaili tried her best to regain her lead but she was not able to better her 6.59 meters effort and had to contend with a silver medal.
How does Shaili Singh's silver medal rank against Neeraj Chopra's gold from 2016?
A silver medal at the World U20 championships is no mean feat for any athlete. However, for Shaili Singh, who is just 17 years old, it is a tremendous achievement.
Neeraj Chopra, the reigning Olympic champion in the men's javelin throw event, was the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World U20 athletics championships. He achieved this feat in 2016 with a world record throw of 86.48 meters.
However, in the lead-up to the 2016 World U20 Championships, Neeraj was struggling for form and was not even able to muster an 80 meter throw after his 82.23 meter throw from the 2016 South Asian Games.
The pressure of expectation to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics led to a string of poor performances from Neeraj Chopra. But as soon as the qualification timeline was over, Neeraj unleashed his career-best throw to script history for India at the 2016 World U20 Championships.
However, for Shaili Singh, it was quite clear from the start that she is going to be prepared for the 2024 Paris Olympics and beyond. This clarity helped Shaili Singh a lot as she had no pressure of expectations to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. She was able to focus on the process in a much better way and got better as the season progressed.
One can rank the silver medal of Shaili Singh at par with Neeraj Chopra's gold medal from 2016 on the basis of the following reasons:
1. Shaili is currently just 17 years old while Neeraj was 18 back then.
2. Both Shaili Singh and Neeraj Chopra produced their best performances at the world championships even though the enormity of Neeraj's throw was quite huge compared to Shaili's jump.
3. Neeraj was a clear gold medal favorite in 2016, while Shaili came out of nowhere.
4. Shaili Singh has been consistently growing this season while Neeraj found his form back at the World U20 Championships in 2016.
What defines Neeraj Chopra is how he built upon that momentum from 2016 to reach the heights that no Indian athlete had ever reached before. Shaili Singh too has got the momentum behind her back and just needs to follow suit. If she succeeds in doing so, she is almost certain to become the next big thing in Indian athletics.
