Anju Bobby George
Creates History for Indian Athletics
Saturday 30 August2003 will remain as a red letter day in the history of Indian athletics, when Anju Bobby George the village girl from Tamil Nada in India, leaped 6.70 metres to win the women’s long jump bronze medal at Athletics World Championship at Paris. She thus became the first Indian to win a medal from a global athletic event. Previously it was P.T. Usha and Milkha Singh who came close to winning a medal by finishing fourth at the Los Angeles and Rome Olympics respectively.
Though a bronze medal is too little for a country with one billion people, still it has been a very proud moment for Indian athletics and in fact for all Indians knowing that Anju has the potential to win a gold medal for India. Her career best leap has been 6.74 metres at the 2000 Nationals Meet which would have given her the silver in the world meet this time.
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