Ancy Sojan breaks Anju Bobby George's 22-year-old national long jump record

BHUBANESHWAR: Ancy Sojan has sacrificed a lot, including giving up biriyani, her favourite food, to reduce her weight from 60kg to 55kg and her body fat percentage from 26 to 13.Her rise is also rooted in the sacrifices of her father, Sojan ET, an auto-rickshaw driver and former athlete who could not fulfil his own sporting dreams but ensured his daughter had the opportunities he never did.Those sacrifices eventually paid off as she broke Anju Bobby George’s long-standing national record in the women’s long jump on the fourth day of National Inter-State Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium here on Saturday.In the men’s high jump, Sarvesh Kushare also bettered Tejaswin Shankar’s national record of 2.29m, clearing 2.31m on his third attempt to huge cheers.But the day undoubtedly belonged to Ancy, who stole Kushare’s thunder as she jumped 6.88m to better Anju's mark of 6.83m, which she set during the Athens Olympics final in 2004, a record that stood for nearly 22 years.Ancy had gone close to the mark during Federation Cup in Ranchi last month, where she achieved her personal best of 6.75m. She had then fallen short of bettering the record by just 9cm and also missed out on the CWG qualifying mark.But on Saturday evening, there was no stopping Ancy as she dominated the competition from the word go. The athlete from Kerala started with a leap of 6.73m. Her second attempt was a foul, but she responded with jumps of 6.67m and 6.72m in her third and fourth attempts respectively.

Eventually, her record-breaking jump of 6.88m came in her fifth attempt, and she signed off the historic night with a leap of 6.69m.Speaking after the event, she was understandably proud of her achievement and hoped that Anju would be pleased to see her long-standing mark surpassed.“She is a legend. Everyone has immense respect for her. I recently read about her story and how she achieved so much despite having only one kidney, which inspired me a lot.

I have watched her jump several times and I know how hard she trained to reach that level,” said Ancy after her performance.“I hope ma’am is happy with my achievement and supports me.”But the 25-year-old has no plans of resting on her laurels and wants to aim even higher at the Asian Games, for which she qualified along with Shaili Singh (6.67m, second) and Mubassina Mohammed (6.53m, third).“I want to win a gold medal and produce a high-quality jump. My target is also Asian Games record because that would help me qualify directly for next year’s World Championships,” said Ancy, who has also been watching videos of the world’s top jumpers and studying how they compete.For Kushare, the achievement was equally special as he secured qualification for the Asian Games. Besides him also achieving the mark were Aadarsh Ram (2.25m, second) and Jesse Sandesh (2.19m, third).Having begun his training in Deogaon village near Nashik using makeshift landing pits filled with corn husk and agricultural waste because proper high-jump mats were unavailable, Kushare has now become the first Indian to go past the 2.30m mark.

His coach Jithin Thomas believes the feat will cement his place in the history books.Among other major results, Karanveer Singh (20.49m), Samardeep Gill (20.40m) and Tajinderpal Singh Toor (20.27m) achieved the Asian Games qualifying standard in the men's shot put. In the women’s 400m hurdles, R Vithya Ramraj and Anu R qualified, while Yashas Santhosh T made the cut in the men's event.Animesh Kujur won the men's 100m while Sudeshna Shivankar took the women's title, but neither athlete achieved the Asian Games qualifying standard.