For Shaili Singh it was so near yet so far on the last day of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi. The talented long jumper on Sunday missed out on scripting history by a mere one centimetre and had to settle for a silver.

The 17-year-old Indian’s personal best effort of 6.59 metres was not enough for a gold as she was pipped to the post by Sweden’s reigning European junior champion Maja Askag, who managed 6.60m for the top spot.

A protege of legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George, Shaili was leading after the third round but the 18-year-old Swede overtook her in the fourth by one centimetre. That proved to be decisive in the end. Mariia Horielova of Ukraine took the bronze with a best jump of 6.50m.

India ended their campaign with a best ever medal haul of two silver medals 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 quartermiler Hima Das (2018).

Shaili Singh celebrates with the Tricolour after winning the long jump silver on Sunday. Twitter

The mixed 4x400m relay quartet and 10,000m race walker Amit Khatri had earlier won a bronze and a silver respectively in the Kenyan capital.

Shaili began brightly with a 6.34 metres and repeated the same distance next 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 was visibly distraught at missing a gold and chance to create history.

Shaili had topped the qualification round on Friday with a best jump of 6.40m.

“I could have jumped further than the 6.59 metres and won the gold. My mother (Vinita) had told me about winning gold and national anthem being sung in the stadium (but I could not do it),” Shaili said later.

In the men’s triple jump, Donald Makimairaj missed the bronze by three centimetres as he produced his personal best of 15.82 metres but had to be content with a fourth-place finish.