World Athletics U20 meet: India sign off with Shaili Singh’s long jump silver

India’s Shaili Singh won the silver medal in women’s long jump with a 6.59m effort at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday.

Shaili Singh missed out on the gold medal to Sweden’s Maja Askag (6.60m) by 0.01m. Ukraine’s Mariia Horielova won the bronze medal with a 6.50m jump.

The Indian long jumper eclipsed her own personal best of 6.48m with the podium clinching effort.

However, it will not reflect so in the record books as the 17-year-old pulled off the 6.59m jump with a wind assistance of 2.2 m/second. Only jumps which are achieved with winds below 2 m/s are considered as official records.

This was India’s third medal of the event after Amit Khatri’s silver in men’s 10000m race walk and the bronze medal in 4x400m mixed relay. It is also India’s first-ever long jump medal in the World Athletics U20 Championships.

Shaili Singh jumped 6.34m in each of her first two attempts. She briefly moved to the top of the leaderboard with 6.59m in her third attempt, but Maja Askag produced her best effort in her fourth attempt.

The Indian long jumper then fouled her fourth and fifth attempts before only managing 6.37m with her sixth and final jump.

The Indian team of Payal Vohra, Summy, Rajitha Kunja and Priya H Mohan, meanwhile, came fourth in the women’s 4x400m relay final with a timing of 3:40.45s in their first race of the season. They finished three seconds off the bronze medal spot.

Summy and Priya H Mohan had earlier won bronze in the 4x400 mixed relay and Priya H Mohan had also finished fourth in the women’s 400m final.

Nigeria took the women’s 4x400m relay gold, with Jamaica winning silver and Italy taking home the bronze medal.

Teenager Donald Makimairaj fell just short of the bronze medal in men’s triple jump as he finished fourth with a personal best jump of 15.82m. It ultimately proved to be 0.03m short of a podium finish.

Sweden’s Gabriel Wallmark became the U20 men’s triple jump world champion with a best attempt of 16.43m. Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert (16.05m) won silver and Frenchman Simon Gore (15.85m) took bronze.

India’s Ankita finished sixth in the women’s 5000m final, clocking 17:17.68s.

This was the final day of the World Athletics U20 Championships and India finished 21st on the medals table with three medals - two silver and one bronze. This was India’s best-ever haul at any single World Athletics U20 Championships.