New Delhi: Ancy Sojan was around three when Anju Bobby George launched herself into the air at the end of a brisk run-up in Athens and set a seemingly unsurpassable national long-jump record. For much of the two decades that followed, Ancy may not have spent a lot of time thinking about George’s record, because her sights were set elsewhere, on the athletics track — remarkable for someone who would eventually overhaul the mark that had stood for 22 years.Now, the girl from Thrissur in central Kerala is looking to write the next chapter in the story at next month’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. She’ll get to warm up for Japan at two events in India. The first of those comes next week in Bhubaneswar, the city where she jumped 6.88m in June to better George’s 6.83m set in 2004.Gearing up for another stab at international glory — she had won the long-jump silver at the last Asian Games — if the 25-year-old gets a moment to reflect on her journey, she would undoubtedly find herself back on the vast shoreline of Nattika, the unlikely setting that put her on the path to becoming an elite athlete.
Forged in sand
Ancy’s father, an autorickshaw driver, used to bring his daughter to the beach in Nattika, where she would sprint on the loose sands, dreaming of becoming a sprinter. But destiny had other plans.“Unknowingly, Ancy was putting herself through nature’s own strength training programme. Running on that loose sand builds strength in the calves and ankles,” said P Ramachandran, the sprinter from Nattika who competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics 4x400m relay.Ancy’s coach, Anoop Joseph, echoes the thought.“Running on the uneven surface of the sand forces your ankles, feet and core to stabilise your body. It can help maintain control during approach and takeoff,” he explains.Ancy made the switch to long jump around 2015, when she won bronze with a 4.93m jump at the U-14 state school games. Then, in 2019, she burst onto the Indian athletics scene with a 6.26m jump at the National School Athletics meet in Sangrur, Punjab.Sanoj VV, her childhood coach who played a pivotal role in Ancy’s transition from a sprinter to a long jumper, remembers the spark he had seen then.“Back then I had predicted that Ancy would break George’s national record. People laughed at me. Today my prediction has come true,” he said, adding that “it was remarkable considering she was so tiny back then”.Following her feat in Bhubaneswar, accolades have poured in for Ancy from several quarters, including a congratulatory call from Kerala chief minister V D Satheeshan.When asked about his ward’s 6.88m leap, Anoop, however, chose to downplay it.“Technically, it was a perfect jump. But let’s not get carried away. We’re still working on her motor qualities, speed and strength,” he said.Anoop has a point. Records in women’s long jump tend to have surprising longevity. The world record, of 7.52m, was set by erstwhile USSR’s Galina Chistyakova in 1988, the same year that the US’ Jackie Joyner-Kersee set the Olympic record of 7.4m at Seoul.Ancy had won her Asian Games silver with a jump of 6.63m, much below her best. The gold in the last edition, held in China, was bagged by the host country’s Xiong Shiqi with a 6.73m jump.For Ancy, the run-up to Japan — apart from the World Athletics Continental Tour in Bhubaneswar, which begins on August 22, she’ll also take part in the Indian Athletics Series in Delhi from September 10 — comes against the backdrop of a personal worry.“My father is recovering from an injury, and his mobility remains restricted. He has not resumed driving his autorickshaw. It remains a concern,” she told TOI.
Backwater bounty
A fishing hamlet known for its frequent dolphin sightings, Nattika is also part of cinema lore as the backdrop for the timeless, National Award-winning Malayalam film ‘Chemmeen’. Part of its claim to fame is also the raft of Olympians and international athletes that it has given India.Apart from Ramachandran, Nattika has produced Anjali P D, a track athlete, and discus thrower Athulya P. Volleyball also has a good following in this sports-loving village.“But no one from Nattika has managed to capture the national imagination like Ancy,” Ramachandran said.Yet, the village lacks a Sports Authority of India centre and is still waiting for a 400m synthetic track for budding athletes.“Aspiring athletes from Nattika have to travel to Kunnamkulam or the SAI centre in Palakkad, which typically takes at least two hours of travel by road,” Ramachandran said.In recent years, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president P T Usha has been campaigning for a synthetic track at the Corporation Stadium in Thrissur.“The progress has been slow,” said Sanoj VV.Sanoj had trained his ward till she was 18 at a ramshackle sand pit on the fringes of the National Fisheries Higher Secondary School in Nattika.“We created a makeshift sand pit for Ancy’s training back then,” he said. “Last year, the government inaugurated a modest 200-metre synthetic track here.”
Kerala vs Karnataka: Record rivalry
The progression of the national women’s long-jump record has been a two-way battle between Karnataka and Kerala. The elite list features no more than seven athletes who’ve held the record since Karnataka’s Angel Mary Joseph became the first Indian to breach the 6m mark in 1978.
Kerala vs Karnataka
Till Ancy Sojan set the new mark of 6.88m in Bhubaneswar in June this year, the honours were evenly split between the two southern states.Mercy Mathew, who held the record in the early 1980s, says she was surprised that Anju Bobby George’s stay at the top lasted 22 years.Talking about Ancy, she feels the girl from Thrissur is capable of bigger leaps.“I wonder why it took this long (for George’s record to be broken), though there were quite a few who looked capable of breaking her mark,” she said. “Those were the days when we knew nothing about records. My first national record came at the inter-university meet in February 1980 in Pune,” she recalled.Mercy said Ancy is capable of adding another 10-12cm to the new record.“I’ve seen her progress from the days when she competed at the school games. She is an aggressive athlete and is capable of giving her best under pressure,” Mercy, who runs her own athletics academy in Kochi, told TOI.Mercy’s best of 6.26m came at the 1982 Asian Games, where she won silver.George’s era began with a record-breaking 6.37m on August 3, 1999, and she then took charge of the record book, improving her mark before producing her personal best of 6.83m in the 2004 Olympics final.
