Anju Bobby George won the bronze in the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Oregon, USA, on Saturday, behind Americans Marion Jones and Grace Upshaw with a wind-aided 6.83 metres.

Anju Bobby George creates history

The Kerala wonder athlete, Anju Bobby George clinched the bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships 2003 in Paris.

Asian Games gold medallist and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist George clinched the third place in the women's long jump competition with her fifth attempt of 6.70 m.

This unexpected bronze medal for the Indian long jumper is an historic one: Anju Bobby George became the first Indian athlete ever to win a medal in a World Athletics Championships!!!

"This is the first medal for my country and I am very happy for it, it is like a gift for India," Anju George said later. "It was a tight competition. I got the rhythm after the first round, but I didn't think I was jumping well. Even with my best jump I had problems on taking off. I didn't realise it was so long."

She won her first event — a lemon-and-spoon race, at age four — after hours of practice. Her finest hour, the bronze medal at the World Athletics Meet in Paris last week, was five years in the making.

More than on-field effort, though, Anju Bobby George’s success story is one of detailed, intensive planning — which should be the real inspiration for her peers and juniors.

So how did Anju go from being ranked 61 in 2001 to sixth in the world at present? The story prefaces in 1998, when Bobby George gave up his career as a champion triple-jumper to coach Anju.

Anju’s own prodigious talent was helped by the extraordinary family she married into. Her husband Bobby, a champion triple-jumper, was the youngest of eight brothers moulded by their father into a volleyball team. The George Brothers would play on the volleyball court in their Kerala home at Peravoor and, though all were adept, Jimmy was the star. He played for India and on the European circuit before being killed in a car accident in the 1980s. Jimmy’s popularity — he played the sport for 17 years — was such that the Italians, the World Cup winners, constructed an indoor stadium and named it after him.

Within a year she was national champion in both long and triple jumps and qualified for the Sydney Games. An injury prevented her from making the Olympics but in June 2001 she set the national record with a jump of 6.74 metres (she equalled that distance last year).

That’s when she began to realise that she could aim higher — or longer. The key to greater success, the couple — now married — realised, was constant international exposure. They began communicating with world record holder Mike Powell and, last March, also sent a proposal for foreign training to the Sports Ministry.

That same month, the Georges met Powell in Birmingham and firmed up the training schedule. The ministry gave its approval in April and, a fortnight later, Anju and Bobby left for California.

In between then and now, she came under the coaching of Mike Powell, holder of the world record in the men’s event. Not only did that expose her to the best tips available on technique, she has also learnt from Powell the art of handling pressure. Performance at the biggest events — the Olympics, World Championships — is all about overcoming pressure. It’s not always how far you jump, how fast you run — world records are usually safe at these meets. What’s important is having the mental strength to compete with the very best and coming out better in those fleeting seconds or minutes. While training with Powell, she also became the first Indian sportswoman to sign up with a top international sports management agency. This effectively opened up doors to her that would otherwise have been barred to Indian athletes.

Anju can prove an inspiration for her peers and juniors. The best hope is for sports administrators to use her example in future planning. Money spent on sending teams abroad to completely unproductive purposes, where the competition won’t do them any good, can instead be spent on cherry-picking athletes and providing the best training possible. The best India could offer turned Anju into an Asian champion. The world’s best turned her into an Olympic contender.

Once there, they began working on the next goal. Negotiations were on with leading US sports management firm HSI; it took a series of good performances by her on the circuit before Anju joined Olympic gold medallists Maurice Greene (world 100m champion) and Allen Johnson, among others, as the only Indian non-cricketing sportsperson to be taken up by a top management firm.

Joining HSI wasn’t about schmoozing and socialising, however; the American firm opened doors — the Paris meet, for one — that would otherwise have remained closed to most Asian athletes.

Meanwhile, she was making progress with Powell. Though his caoching was obviously excellent — the best training facilities and advice on technical perfection, says Bobby — what was equally important was his experience at the very top level of sport. Especially in choosing and preparing for events.

However, there were some problems that even Powell couldn’t help her with; international visas, for one. ‘‘It took four days in Los Angeles to get a visa for Rome and three days there for a visa to France. But for some helping hands in the Indian missions, Anju could not have participated at the World meet,’’ says Bobby.

What the experience of the past few months has shown is the importance of training abroad. Bobby points out some very mundane, practical problems that would nonethelesss affect an athlete’s performance. ‘‘In Europe and the US, one can train from from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. But in India, be it Patiala or Bangalore, the SAI facilities operate according to some specific timings. Unless you knew the officials, you can’t extend the training schedule beyond a particular time. They can’t be so rigid about the timings,’’ he says.

As for the money, both Anju and Bobby admitted that it costs quite a lot — travel, stay and training in the US and Europe. ‘‘We’re managing from the amount sanctioned by the Sports Ministry, cash awards and help from the Tamil Nadu government. But corporate houses haven’t responded,’’ says Anju. Bobby said the corporate houses approached wanted to see results before funding.

The results are now there. And things should get even better; you can bet the Georges have a plan for that.

Her bronze medal leap in French Capital has already made Anju the first Indian to win a medal at the World Championships. Now the long jumper is hoping to keep improving her performance ahead of next year´s Olympics in Athens.

Though Indian girl did lose valuable training time after being robbed of her money and her passport a few days ago in Paris, a medal in Monaco will certainly cheer her fans in back home and boost her confidence further.

When Anju Bobby George won the long jump gold medal at the Busan Asiad last year, few people would have imagined that she would go on to compete at the World Athletics finals in Monaco.

Remember only the top eight in their discipline are invited to the event. However, the bronze at the World Championships in Paris has now taken Anju´s ranking to 6th in the world.

Anju, whose best is 6.74 metres, won the bronze in Paris with a jump of 6.70 metres.

Eunice Barber of France won the gold at last month´s World Championships with a jump of 6.99 metres - in fact Heike Dreschler won the gold at the Sydney Olympics with the same distance.

In comparison, the world record looks distant at 7.52 metres.

Now Anju Bobby George goes into the World Finals high on confidence after her bronze medal winning performance at Paris.

Anju George, who created long jump history in Paris last month, returned to the country to a rousing welcome. She jumped 6.7 meters to take the bronze in the World Athletics Championships.
Enthusiastic fans thronged New Delhi's airport long before Anju's flight touched down on Monday.

The fans in thousands who were dancing with ear-shattering drums and shouting slogans, showered petals on Anju and her coach- husband Bobby George as they came out of the terminal.

Both Anju and Bobby George work in the customs department and are settled in Chennai.

A beaming Anju said she is now focussing on the challenges ahead.

"I am very happy because I had a chance to represent my country in front of the whole world and win a medal. I know our India is also proud of me. My main aim is Olympics next year. We will try hard for that also," Anju said.

Anju George will train in California for the 2004 Athens Olympics, her next target.

With the bronze in her kitty, she is now ranked sixth in the world.

The 25-year-old's win is being hailed as a giant leap for Indian sport.

Perhaps, the biggest thanks should go to her parents. She laughs when she recollects those early days when her father would drag her and her younger brother from bed for training in running at the nearby ground in Changnassery. "My brother could not last the rigors, while my interest gradually grew as I came under the influence of Thomas Sir (incidentally, he is a much-admired athletics trainer in Kottayam and an uncle of Shiny Wilson) in Koruthode school," Anju recalled. From there began her involvement in competitions as she rose to become a leading performer in Calicut University before donning state and national colours. A preventive officer with Chennai Customs, Anju virtually lives in Bangalore being regularly in training at the NIS South Centre.

Anju admits that Bobby has proved to be the biggest influence on her life. "He has made me realise the potential in me, and instilled the belief in me that I can do it," she said. "Being an engineer, he has done a lot of research in bio-mechanics, and does a lot of reading concerning jumps, for my sake. And invariably, he would be accurate in his estimation of my performance," she went on. Perhaps that is why Bobby is so confident that Anju can get her act together and make those big jumps in practice session come true on the competition arena. May be there is one big surprise in store for every Indian in Athens 2004 Olympics.