India’s Shaili Singh, on Sunday, won the silver medal in women’s long jump at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi. The 17-year-old registered a best attempt of 6.59m, falling short of gold by 0.01m. With Singh’s win, India’s medal tally at the competition stands at three. 

Sweden’s Maja Askag won the long jump event with a best effort of 6.60 meters. Ukraine’s Mariia Horielova clinched the bronze medal. 

Also read: Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah clocks second fastest timing in women’s 100m

Shaili Singh’s best distance was recorded in her third attempt. She started with two jumps of 6.34m. Askag jumped 6.60m in her fourth attempt to win the gold medal. 

Shaili had topped the qualification round with 6.40m. While her previous career-best jump was 6.48m and her effort at the World Athletics U20 Championships trumps that by 11cm, these numbers will not be considered because it was a wind-assisted jump.

The Jhansi-born athlete, who was raised by a single mother who worked as a tailor, currently trains at the academy of Anju Bobby George in Bengaluru. She is coached by Anju’s husband Bobby George.

Also read: Neeraj Chopra eyes World Championship title after Olympic gold

She had won the women’s long jump event at the National (Senior) Inter-State Championships in June with an effort of 6.48m, her previous personal best. She is the current U-18 world No. 2 and U-20 national record holder.

Meanwhile, the Indian 4x400m women’s relay team finished fourth in the final with a season’s best timing of 3:40:45. Team Nigeria, Jamaica and Italy took the podium in the order. Earlier, India’s Ankita finished sixth in the women’s 5,000m event. On Saturday, India’s mixed 4x400m relay team had won the bronze medal while Amit Khatri won the silver medal in the 10000m race walk event.

  Also read: Sprinter Hansle Parchment won gold because of a stranger. Here is the story

With this, India finishes the World Athletics under-20 championships with two silvers in Shaili Singh and Amit Khatri and a bronze from the 4x400m mixed relay team.

India’s winners at this competition include Seema Antil (bronze in discus throw, 2002), Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze in discus throw, 2014), Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra (gold in javelin throw, 2016) and Hima Das (gold in 400m, 2018).