new delhi i live and breathe athletics and my aim is to nurture olympic medallists legendary indian long jumper anju bobby george said on thursday after she was adjudged the woman of the year by world athletics for grooming talent in the country and advocating gender equalitythe 44yearold anju the only indian to win a medal in the senior world championships with a long jump bronze in the 2003 edition was named for the award for dedicating her life to athletics during the world bodys annual awards night held virtually on wednesdayread alsolegendary anju bobby george wins woman of year award from world athleticslegendary indian athlete anju bobby george has been bestowed with the woman of the year award by world athletics for grooming talent in the country and for her advocacy of gender equality anju the only indian to have won a medal in the world championships with a long jump bronze in the 2003sports ministry adds seven former athletes to mission olympics cellfootball icon bhaichung bhutia and long jumper anju bobby george were among seven former athletes who were included in the mission olympic cell as india looked to build on the successes of tokyo olympics for a stronger show in paris 2024 editionshe is the first indian to be honoured by the sports world body during its annual awards function and the second recipient of the award which was started in 2019 after ethiopias double olympic champion derartu tuluit athletics is my passion i live and breathe athletics it has given me name and fame including this award and it is my turn to give back to my country and to the sport anju told pti in an interview from bangalorei won a medal in the world championships but not in the olympics but neeraj chopras gold in tokyo has shown that indians can win medals in the olympics my aim and mission is to groom talent in the country and make them olympic medallists she saidanju who is a senior vicepresident of the athletics federation of india an executive committee member of the indian olympic association as its athletes commission member and also a part of the countrys mission olympics cell said her sport has changed for the better since her competitive daysthe world of sport is evolving and changing not only sport but every walk of life i can see a big difference in indian athletics now as compared to my time in the facilities provided by the government in training and exposure trips coaching and other support staffthere is awareness about sport among ordinary people people have started taking sport as a way of life neeraj chopras historic olympic gold was of course a booster but even before that athletics had started reaching the school level through programmes like khelo indiajust like in other countries athletics has started taking roots in schools and indian athletics is moving in the right directionasked about bringing gender equality in sports administration and in the field of play