Anurag Thakur congratulates Shaili Singh for bagging silver at U-20 world athletics

On Sunday, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur congratulated long jumper Shaili Singh for winning the Silver medal in the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi. The athlete missed out on scripting history by winning gold by a mere 1cm. the 17-year-old athlete marked her personal best of 6.59m in the final event to bag silver. Congratulating the athlete on her feat, Anurag Thakur said that Singh’s win was a positive sign for the youth development in the country.  

Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur congratulates Shaili Singh

Anurag Thakur was quick to congratulate the athlete on landing a medal at the athletics event. While speaking to the reporters, the minister said that the country was proud of the young athlete. “Shaili Singh has won a silver medal which is good news for the country. This is her personal best to date where she jumped 6.59m in the final event. I congratulate her on winning the silver medal for India. Her performance was fabulous. She missed the Gold medal by 1 cm but her performance was commendable. I wish her good luck in her future endeavours. This is a sign that our young athletes are doing well,” Thakur said.

Furthermore, the minister also congratulated the athlete’s coach for the achievement. Thakur pointed out how well our former athletes were helping the country in reaching new heights. “I also congratulate her coach and other athletes also for their good performance. I very well remember that when I had met Anju Bobby George after she won a medal at the recently concluded Olympics after I was the Youth Affairs and Sports Minister, she had told me that her husband has been imparting training to students and Shaili is one of them. You can very well understand that when old players are running academies, and training students and also assisting the Centre in running Khelo India centres. This has been benefitting our paters in enhancing their performance,” the minister added.

Anurag Thakur also took to his Twitter handle to congratulate the athlete on her stellar performance. Meanwhile, the minister also took the opportunity to promise the uprise of ‘Khel Bhoomi’. Thakur said that the Centre would work to make Himachal Pradesh a Khel Bhoomi for the upcoming athletes. The minister also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership. The minister said that the Olympics and the World Athletics U20 Championships are positive signs of India’s growth in the sports fields.

Shaili Singh bags Silver in U20 World Athletics

Team India's athletes continued to shine at the U-20 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi as highly talented long jumper Shaili Singh won silver on Sunday. Shaili began brightly with a 6.34m and repeated the same distance before her best effort in the third round. Her next two attempts were fouls and she could not get past the 6.60m in her final jump, and the youngster seemed to be distraught at missing gold and chance to create history.  The 17-year-old Shaili Singh's personal best effort of 6.59m was not enough for gold as Sweden's reigning European junior champion Maja Askag managed 6.60m for the top spot on the final day of the championships.

India at World Athletics U20 Championships

India ended their campaign with a best-ever medal haul of 2 silver and one bronze, though the country had won one gold each in the earlier two editions -- by Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra (2016) and quarter-miler Hima Das (2018). The mixed 4x400m relay quartet and 10,000m race walker Amit Khatri had earlier won bronze and silver in this championships event.

IMAGE: ANI