Asian Games: Ancy Sojan lights up night, Parul Chaudhary settles for silver in steeplechase

Rohit Mahajan in Hangzhou

Ancy Sojan, all of 55kg and a little above five feet tall, is usually bursting with nervous energy. After winning the women’s long jump silver, she was on cloud nine — she said she was going to celebrate by dancing the night away.

Huge leap

Ancy Sojan makes grand entry on the big stage with a long jump silver, leaps 6.63 m

Shortly after winning silver, the 22-year-old, asked to comment on her performance, had a question: “English or Malayalam?” English it was, and Ancy spoke rapidly, words of positivity tumbling out of her mouth — the ground was good, the crowd was good, the jumps were good. “I was improving with each jump,” she said. Ancy began with 6.13 metres, then hit 6.49m, then 6.56m, securing silver with a 6.63m — a personal best for her. Shaili Singh finished fourth with a best of 6.48m.

Stellar show

In 3,000m steeplechase, UP’s Parul (R) clocks 9:27.63 seconds to bag a silver, while Haryana’s Priti Lamba takes bronze

Ancy, from Thrissur in Kerala, declared that she was going to stick to her ‘processes’ — as per (according to her) the wise words of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, which she heard once and now swears by.

“When we come to a competition, everyone is worried about the result!” she said. “But result is later— first we need to do the processes!”

“Dhoni said like that — what you’re practising, the same thing you need to do here,” she said. “Concentrate on what we have to do. I knew my faults, and I knew that I had to give more power at the take-off — and that’s what I did.” “Processes work, and after that is the result,” she said. On the field, she seemed to be grooving to music only she could hear over the cacophony from the stands of the massive Olympic Park stadium; later she said she was moving to English and Tamil songs playing in her mind.

Not Malayalam songs? “That I listen to relax!” she said. She said she tried to pep up teammate Shaili Singh, too. “I told her just remain calm, today is our day,” said Ancy. That’s not what Shaili thought of her own day. Moments earlier, Shaili, who finished fourth in the event with 6.48m, wiped the tears trickling down her cheeks as she said: “Today was not my day.”

“If I had achieved my personal best, I would have won gold,” said Shaili, the 19-year-old from Jhansi, who won silver at the U-20 World Athletics Championships in 2021. Her personal best is 6.76m, and gold today was won in 6.73m by Xiong Shiqi of China. “Wasn’t my day today,” said Shaili, sighing, wiping her tears away.

The first silver of the night was won by Parul Chaudhary, the 28-year-old from Meerut, in the 3,000m steeplechase. Parul had started the race strongly, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that gold won’t go to her — because right at the heels for most of the race was Yavi Winfred Mutile, the Kenyan-born Bahraini, the world champion at Budapest this year. Parul had set the pace and led for half the race, but Yavi changed gears in the third lap and easily put distance between them with her long, strong strides. The Bahrain girl won gold in 9 minutes and 18.28 seconds, a new Games record, finishing well clear of Parul, who timed 9:27.63. This was well below her personal best of 9:15.31, recorded at the Budapest World Championships.

The gap between them made it a dull finish, but the thrills were provided by Faridabad’s Priti Lamba, who slipped from third to fourth before coming up with a thrilling kick to overtake Tigest Getent Mekonen, another athlete born in Africa but lured by Bahrain.

“I knew I could not beat Yavi, and I knew that Parul is much stronger than me,” said Priti. “So I decided I would not run with the leaders. I wanted to win a medal, and I did that by running with this strategy!”

India were lucky to get the third silver, in the 4x400m mixed relay, after Sri Lanka’s team was suspended for a lane infringement. There were only five teams in the fray, and this should be counted as the luckiest silver won by India here.