"I am confident of surpassing that mark" - Long jumper Nayana James sets her sights on Paris Olympics 2024

Seasoned campaigner Nayana James stole the spotlight after achieving her personal best of 6.67m in the women’s long jump at the third Indian Open Jumps campaign, conducted by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in Bengaluru. Notably, her previous best was 6.55m.

Nayana bagged the gold medal after sailing to her personal best. Additionally, she also went past the 6.40m mark in her remaining jumps to showcase her consistency. Uttar Pradesh's Shaili Singh was pitted to win the title but she had to settle with the second place with a jump of 6.4m.

After the exceptional title win, an elated Nayana stated that she would be eyeing the Paris Olympics quota. The qualification mark in the women’s long jump for the quadrennial event is 6.86m, which is higher than the national record set by Anju Bobby George (6.83m) in 2004.

"I feel so grateful, and we were expecting this performance. We are now working on our way to the Paris Olympics,” Nayana told The Bridge.

"I am confident of surpassing that mark. Since the last National Games, we have been working towards it. I just need to make a couple of corrections, and that will enable me to reach there,” she added.

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“I have improved my overall fitness” - Nayana James

It’s important to note that Nayana has consistently been surpassing 6.50m for the past few years. Moreover, she grabbed the spotlight last year after bagging the silver medal at the 37th National Games.

Furthermore, Nayana emphasized the technical changes made to improve her jump. She also asserted the importance of diet changes and the enhancement of her fitness.

"I have worked on technical precision for a while now. I have also improved my diet and overall fitness," she stated.

Nayana was accompanied by her current coach, Pinto Mathew, who explained the reasons behind her improvements in the game. "She is an experienced long jumper. When I started training her, there was some confusion around the technique. She had been consistently jumping 6.50m for close to five years," Pinto said.

"We worked on her mental conditioning and then focused on her technique. We came here without much preparation, just to gain experience, and she ended up winning gold," he went on to add.

Nayana would be aiming to amass a good number of ranking points in the upcoming Federation Cup and Indian Grand Prix to stay in the race for the mega event in Paris.