Ancy Sojan defied pre-tournament expectations to win silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games, becoming the ninth Indian woman to win a medal in that event. And she did so with a show of exuberance and confidence that belied her relative inexperience on the big stage.
Ancy was the #4 in the field when the event began and her younger compatriot, Shaili Singh, ranked #2, was more fancied to finish on the podium.
Sporting a blue headband, braided hair with multicoloured beads and a coat of orange taping on her left knee, she managed a big jump of 6.63m to climb the podium. It was seven centimetres beyond her earlier personal best of 6.56m.
Ancy began the evening with a modest jump of 6.13, while China's Shiqi Xiong set the tone of the competition with a huge 6.62m jump. It was going to take something special from Ancy to not only catch up to Xiong, but also to steer clear of Japan's Sumire Hata, who won the Asian Championships and has a PB of 6.97m.
Ancy did not look fazed though. Each of her jumps was a spectacle: she began by getting the crowd behind her with a series of claps, then came the bend forwards, a strong arch of the back, a deep intake of air before racing down the runway. Then a big shriek and a leap into the pit.
Her second jump measured 6.49m. A big improvement. She went even further in her third: 6.56m. It equalled her personal and season's best. More importantly, it also took her past Hong Kong's Nga Yan Yue [6.50m] into the second spot.
Halfway into the event, Ancy had cemented her spot in the top-3. And she was not to be displaced. Her fourth jump was 6.30m, but that built her up to the big one - a 6.63m in her fifth attempt. Waiting by the sandpit to see how much her jump measured, she let out a roar and thumped the bib on her jersey in celebration. She knew she'd assured herself of the silver. Amid all this, though, she took time out to encourage Shaili several times with a pat on the back.
She went for broke in her final attempt and that resulted in a foul, but it did not matter. Ancy had already begun celebrating and flashed the widest grin she could. This was her first major medal on foreign soil, her first chance to drape the Indian flag on her shoulders and celebrate. And she did, posing for every camera that was pointed at her. She even sneakily peeled away from the other medallists to grab a quick solo picture taken.
The other Indian in the fray, Shaili, rued her chances as she sunk to the track after her final attempt. She missed out on the medal by a whisker: 2cm. Her best jump was 6.48m, while the bronze went at 6.50m to Hong Kong's Yue.
Ancy has enjoyed a good 2023: she won the Indian Grand Prix in Trivandrum, the Federation Cup and the Inter-States. Her only non-podium finish was at the Asian Athletics Championships, where she finished fourth. And that spurred her on for the Asian Games.
Training with former Russian triple jumper Denis Kapustin, a bronze medallist at the 2000 Olympics, Ancy has chiseled herself into a polished jumper. Until 2021, she ran the 100m, 200m and did the long jump at the junior level.
It was in 2022 when she made the full-time switch to long jump and the results began to show. Her best in long jump went from 6.28m in February 2021 to 6.55m in March 2022. She finished on the podium in every domestic competition except for the National Games, which were held a couple of months after her seventh-place finish at the Commonwealth Games.