World Athletics U-20 Championships Day 5 Preview: Indians aim for four medals

All eyes will be on young sensation Shaili Singh, who will be in action on Sunday.

The World Athletics U-20 Championship have been a very fruitful event for India. The Indian contingent has won two medals so far- a bronze in the 4x400m mixed relay and a silver in 10,000m racewalking (men's). This is the country's best ever showing at the event. Added to that, there were many inspiring performances from several athletes, who will only get better from here.

India has a chance to sign off with as many as four medals on the final day. They will be eager to see several talented athletes take the field.

Here is the list of Indian athletes who will be in action on the final day.

Men’s triple jump (Donal Makimairaj) - 5:00 PM IST

All eyes will be on the sole Indian representative in men's triple jump at the World U-20 Athletics Championships, Donal Makimairaj. The 19-year-old triple jumper has a season best record of 15.76m. He registered this at the Indian U-20 Championships earlier in 2021 in Sangrur.

Women’s long jump final (Shaili Singh) - 6:55 PM IST

The most anticipated event of the day is the women's long jump final, as medal prospect Shaili Singh will be in action. The 17-year-old has started really well at the Kasarani Stadium as she topped the qualifications after coming up with a distance of 6.40m. Shaili announced herself with her first attempt in the qualifiers registering a solid 6.34m. However, her second attempt was not as good as the youngster could only manage 5.98m. It was her third jump that breached the automatic qualification mark as she registered 6.40m.

All eyes will be on her as the Indian fans will expect her to carry forward the tradition which was started by Neeraj Chopra in 2016 and carried forward by Hima Das in 2018. Both athletes won gold medals in their respective disciplines and Shaili will be expected to join them.

Women’s 5000m (Ankita Dhyani) - 7:40 PM IST

The event will end with one of India's most talented middle distance runners taking the field at the World U-20 Athletics Championships. Ankita Dhyani will represent India in the women's 5000m. She is a junior national record holder and will now look to announce herself globally.

Earlier in 2021, she won two gold medals in the 1500m and 5000m events at the Federation Cup Junior Athletics Championships. She clocked a timing of 16:21.19 in the 5000m race, which is a national junior record. She will look to replicate that performance in Nairobi.

Women's 4x400m relay (TBD)

The Indian women's relay team will be in action on the final day. They will look to take inspiration from the mixed team's bronze medal. The Women's relay team consists of Priya Mohan, Summy, Payal Vohra, Deepanshi and Kunjha Rajitha. They will be seen directly in the finals with seven other teams and it will be a tall task for the Indian women to get something out of it.

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