India’s young talent in the women’s long jump, Shaili Singh, finished 2nd at the Interstates at the
end of June with a jump of 6.59m.
It was a stronger performance than she had managed thus far in the season, but left her falling agonisingly short of Olympic qualification.
It brought an end to a hectic 2024 season highlighted by a busy stint in Europe, during which she has participated in no less than 6 events in 6 different countries over the course of a month to try and qualify for Paris 2024.
The long jump at Interstates was a thrilling showdown between Shaili, Ancy Sojan, and Nayana James.
Shaili and Ancy both jumped 6.44m in the 2nd round, before Shaili took the lead in the 4th with an impressive 6.59m into a slight headwind.
The narrow 7cm advantage was overturned in the next round when Ancy matched her 6.59m and ended up winning on count-back.
That took 20 ranking points away from Shaili, but she would have needed to win in 6.82m to qualify, in any case.
Although not the result she would have wanted and not enough to qualify, her 6.59m jump and strong series was an encouraging sign after some tough meets in Europe, where she failed to reach 6.20m at times, despite being capable of much more.
Expectations were high for Shaili Singh in 2024. She emerged as a talent back in 2021 by winning
Silver at the U20 World Championships, already jumping 6.50 metres as a 17 year-old.
She continued to progress into 2023, achieving a big personal best of 6.76m last April. This was
followed by big performances on the international stage, including Silver at the Asian Champs, qualifying for the World Champs, and a 5th place finish at the Asian Games.
These brought Paris 2024 qualification within her reach heading into this year.
She had a good start at domestic meets, going 6.52m in April. But her flurry of competition in Europe did not see her reach that sort of distance, with only a couple of 6.40+ jumps.
She placed well in all the meets, winning multiple medals, and gained valuable experience.
But she did not quite produce the performances she would have hoped for. It is certainly understandable.
She had very little time for rest and recovery between meets and the hectic competition schedule would have left little scope for training.
We must also factor in the constant travel to new places and the challenges of adapting so quickly to compete.
The purpose of the trip to Europe was to gather
ranking points to boost her Paris qualification hopes, but the circumstances were not conducive
to big jumps.
This left her with a lot to do at the Interstates weekend to make it to Paris.
With the benefit of hindsight, we know that she ultimately would have had to win in 6.82m to break into the qualifying places.
That would have been 1cm off the 20-year-old national record and 4cm off the Paris qualifying mark, so it was asking a lot.
She did produce a season’s best in tricky conditions, though, with a much better series than any she had produced in Europe.
Returning to compete at home apparently suited her, but she just had too much ground to make up in the rankings.
The future outlook for Shaili Singh is very bright, however. The expectations from her have been
high, and the women’s long jump is a competitive event in India with the likes of Nayana James
and Ancy Sojan as well.
We should be grateful to have a talented group like this and not put undue pressure on them. At only 20, Shaili is in the early stages of a jumper’s career, with scope to improve by leaps and bounds.
Her goal this year was Paris 2024, but with that out of the picture, she can return her focus to long-term goals with more training, less pressure, and a less intensive competition schedule.
She can work with her coaches on refining her technique and making gradual progress as a long jumper. The talent is there, it just needs to be given the time to flourish.
That will help her reach the peaks of last year again and hopefully go much further in the future.
Written by Aaryan (Twitter: @thesportsniche)
