Long jumper Shaili Singh finishes 3rd at Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Japan

YOKOHAMA, May 21
Shaili Singh opened her international outdoor season with a bronze in the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, a World Athletics Continental Tour-Gold event, in Yokohama on Sunday.
Shaili, the 2021 under-20 Worlds silver medallist who has a personal best of 6.76m, opened with a wind-assisted 6.65m (+2.1) and that was her best for the day. That kept the 19-year-old World No. 76, a SAI NCOE athlete who is coached by Robert Bobby George in Bengaluru’s Anju Bobby High Performance Centre, in the lead till the halfway stage before Germany’s World No. 17 Maryse Luzolo jumped to the front with a wind-aided 6.79 (+2.5) in the fifth round that gave her the gold.
Ausralia’s Commonwealth Games sivler medallist Brooke Buschkuehl, the World No. 8 who has a personal best of 7.13m which came in the USA last year, took the silver with 6.77m.
Shaili’s series also included a 6.59m in the second round under legal wind conditions and the result in this category ‘A’ event should help her climb a few rungs in the ‘Road to the Budapest’ rankings. She is currently in the 42 nd spot and only 36 can make it to the World Championships in Hungary in August. The qualification gates for the Budapest Worlds close on July 30.
“I was expecting something like 6.80m...her landing was not proper, there was a bit of rotation,” Bobby told Sportstar from Japan.
“Still this is a very good performance in her first world-class international meet. She now has the Inter-State Nationals (in Bhubaneswar, July) and the Asian Championships (Thailand, July) ahead of her.”
Meanwhile Japan’s Sumire Hata, who had won the Indoor Asians gold in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, in February was fourth in Japan with 6.48m.
The results: Women’s long jump: 1. Maryse Luzolo (Ger) 6.79m, 2. Brooke Buschkuehl (Aus) 6.77, 3. Shaili Singh (Ind) 6.65m.             Sportstar