The podium finish at the World Championships in Paris last August catapulted Anju Bobby George as India's best bet in Athens and now she is fighting against all odds in Europe determined to unfurl the tri-colour at the Olympic stadium in Athens this August.
The 27-year-old Anju, currently number four in the world, is in Paris for the last few weeks fine tuning her skills with husband and coach Robert Bobby George hoping to peak at the right moment to repeat history next month.
"I want to peak at the right time. It seems the others are peaking a bit early," Anju said commenting on her main rivals who were soaring near or above the seven-metre mark.
Anju's two best jumps came in May and June when she touched 6.82m to win the Doha Super Grand Prix and then bettered it by a centimetre, while finishing third behind Marion Jones and Grace Upshaw, at the Eugene Prefontaine Classic in USA. But both these efforts were wind aided and thus failed to get into the list of top jumps in 2004.
The Indian's best jump in the IAAF list is 6.66m achieved in the first National Circuit Athletic Meet at New Delhi in April, her only Championship at home this season.
"Don't worry about these statistics. If you look at some of the efforts (by her rivals) they were achieved at familiar tracks," Anju's husband and coach Robert Bobby George said.
Bobby was referring to track queen Marion Jone's leap of 7.11m (the second best leap of the year) at the U.S. Olympic trials in Sacramento. That effort put Jones only behind Jamaica's Elva Goulbourne, who touched 7.16m in Mexico in May.
More than the statistics, Bobby is concerned about a new trouble that has cropped up this year.
"If you look at her performances she has had a lot of foul jumps. It is a new development. It has cropped up only this season," he said.
"Except in Japan, where Anju finished fourth with 6.46m, she had more than two foul jumps out of six. You expect her to come up with atleast four valid jumps," he said.
Efforts to overcome this new flaw seemed to produce results in the Madrid Grand Prix last week when Anju came up with four valid jumps before fouling the last two. Her best was 6.62m that gave her a silver medal.
The beginning of this month saw Anju's worst form when she managed only a 6.41m at the Golden Gala Meet in Rome while finishing fourth. That was even below the 6.46m touched at Osaka in May.
The duo, who are spending about 1000 Euros a month, are not taking any help from experts in Paris except for physiotherapy.
"It is a difficult situation. We have to manage everything on our own. One may ask why you came here. But we only had two options - either stay back and forget about Olympics or come here and struggle... even prepared to die," Bobby said.
Next up for Anju is the DN Galan Super Grand Prix in Stockholm on Tuesday before the duo moves to Athens on August 1 to realise the ultimate dream on August 27.