Shaili Singh poised to leapfrog Anju Bobby George

Improved method: Shaili has labored with coach Robert Bobby George on her posture and physique positioning simply earlier than take-off. The adjustments have yielded outcomes, with the younger athlete constantly producing huge jumps. | Photo credit score: Ok. Murali Kumar Ok

Coach, mentor and protégé: Bobby George began working with Shaili when she was 14. He had begun teaching her mentor Anju when she was 21. | Photo credit score: PTI

Was that seven metres?

That was the large query for a lot of as they watched younger lengthy jumper Shaili Singh produce an enormous leap on the Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru final month. Certainly, it did appear to be the largest bounce the nation had ever seen at dwelling.

A few seconds later, to all people’s disappointment, the purple flag went up.

“Yes, it was 6.90-plus. It was very close, a foul by a couple of centimetres. Even if she jumps 7m, it will not be a surprise for me or Anju,” mentioned Robert Bobby George, the pinnacle coach on the Anju Bobby High Performance Centre in Bengaluru, who has been teaching Shaili for the final 5 years.

This means the 19-year-old could be very shut to Anju’s nationwide report (6.83m), set on the 2004 Athens Olympics in a fifth-place end. A yr earlier in Paris, Anju had gained a medal (bronze) on the World Championships, the one Indian lady to obtain this feat.

“Shaili can break the record any time, it depends on the day and the mood. This is just the season-opener, she had a good series, everything above 6.50,” mentioned Bobby.

Within attain

Anju, whom Bobby had coached to the 2003 Worlds bronze and who’s now the mentor on the Anju Bobby HPC, is assured about it, too. “Shaili can break my record this year itself,” mentioned Anju.

In truth, Bobby and his spouse Anju had felt that Shaili would break the nationwide report in Bengaluru that day. The teenager’s gold-winning bounce measured 6.76m.

“Anju and I told her that she had to attempt to break the national record and qualify for the World Championships. That was my target and she made a wonderful effort,” mentioned Bobby.

However, though Shaili seems able to producing huge jumps this season, Bobby just isn’t taking any probabilities.

The automated qualification customary for the Worlds, in Budapest from August 19, is 6.85m and the 12-month entry doorways shut on July 30. 

So Bobby is trying to find high quality competitions to be sure that Shaili makes the minimize by way of the World rating route if she doesn’t make the automated customary. There are 36 lengthy bounce slots out there and Shaili is presently thirty ninth within the ‘Road to Budapest’ rankings.

With an eye fixed on the Worlds berth, Shaili shall be competing within the Seiko Golden Grand Prix — a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold occasion providing loads of rating factors — in Yokohama on May 21.

It shall be her worldwide outside season-opener, and it’ll convey again loads of recollections for Bobby and Anju.

Anju had gained gold in the identical meet in 2004, a month after the Athens Olympics. She had shocked the then Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva and legendary two-time Olympic champion Heike Drechsler, who was in motion in considered one of her final competitions earlier than retiring.

“We are trying for the Diamond League, only the best get an entry there. She is not there yet, if she gets a good jump in Yokohama, it will be good,” mentioned Bobby who first noticed Shaili’s potential on the 2017 Junior Nationals in Guntur, the place she was fifth with 4.64m.

The younger lady, from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh the place her mom took to tailoring to preserve the house fires burning, is now No. 4 on this yr’s World checklist along with her 6.76m. She can be Asia’s No. 1 feminine lengthy jumper and occupies the highest rung within the under-20 World checklist.

2023 objectives

“The Asian Games [Hangzhou, Sept. 2023] gold and sub-20 in the World ranking are my goals for this year,” mentioned Shaili.

Her development over the previous couple of years has been beautiful. And Bobby attributes this yr’s huge jumps to the adjustments he has made.

“There is a paradigm shift in my training programme altogether and this is going to give results not only for Shaili but for the other athletes also,” he mentioned. “We are focusing on key areas. Last year, because of Shaili’s [back] injury I could not do that. This time she was ready.”

The Anju Bobby Centre now has its personal facility at Kengeri, the place the 11 SAI National Centre of Excellence athletes, who’re coached by Bobby, practice. They go to the SAI Centre for power and conditioning exercises.

“We have shifted the majority of our trainees to our new track in Kengeri. That in itself gives a good advantage, it’s a sort of exclusive team track, the ambience, light, aroma, the colour, everything sets the mood for training,” defined Bobby. “It imparts positive vibes every time and the athletes are more relaxed.”

This is a setting that would throw up one other Olympic medal, both in Paris 2024 or in Los Angeles 2028. But the centre — the nation’s solely facility which has a World Championships medallist and the coach who produced that medallist coaching younger athletes — requires extra sponsors and funds, and rapidly too, for high quality gear and manpower. 

Fast learner, powerful fighter

“The countdown has begun, we have 14 months left for Paris. Shaili’s age is her major advantage. She’s a fast learner and a good fighter. But she’s still a kid as far as the long jump is concerned at the global level. She is among the youngest long jumpers at the world level where you have the mighty Americans and Europeans. Still, that’s an advantage. She will have no fear and could be giving a scare to the others as she keeps improving,” mentioned Bobby.

Bobby has tinkered with Shaili’s method and that might be a motive for the large jumps.

“I have made some changes in her technique, she was leaning too far backward and [causing] a hyper-extension of her back that led to injuries. So, I have made some corrections in her body posture and in the body positioning just before take-off,” he mentioned.

Anju is worked up and proud that the expertise she and Bobby noticed and are moulding is now a tremendous, world-class athlete, one who appears to be like able to bettering her mentor’s glowing report.

In truth, Shaili appears to be a little bit of Anju herself.

“This year, Shaili’s speed is very close to what Anju had in her prime. Her relative power is also somewhat equal to Anju. Only thing is, she has to stabilise her technique, get more mature to get not just one jump and for that she has to do a series of competitions,” mentioned Bobby.

“She has to prepare for all of the travelling, for competitions, for various time zones, totally different meals habits. And then after the competitors, when your enthusiasm dies, you have got to come again to competitions once more.

“She may break the record but it may take Shaili a couple of years more to reach that stature…for everything, understanding the game and game-plan. But Shaili is still young.”

Anju got here to Bobby at 21, Shaili is an early hen. Bobby began coaching her at 14 and that’s an enormous benefit for the younger athlete. The lengthy bounce, for certain, has many attention-grabbing days forward.