KOCHI/BHUBANESWAR: When Ancy Sojan revised a 22-year-old national record in the women’s long jump on Saturday, it shook Nattika, a small fishing village in Kerala’s Thrissur district.About 2,000 km away from the sandpit in Bhubaneswar where she had landed with 6.88m, two local auto-rickshaw drivers indirectly fulfilled their sporting dreams as Kerala legends. Anju Bobby GeorgeThe long-standing record has disappeared into the sand. Anju’s 6.83m was set at the 2004 Athens Olympics.One was Ancy’s father, Sojan ET. The other, his childhood coach Sanoj VV – “Kannan Mash” to everyone in Nattika.Nor did the men make it out of the district level as athletes, stuck as they were in the snarl traffic that is the lack of opportunities in Indian sports. On Saturday, they found redemption through Ancy’s majestic 6.88m jump.“People laughed at me when I predicted in 2019 that Ancy would break Anju Bobby George’s record,” Ancy’s first coach told TOI, “She was just 18 then. See, today my prediction came true.”Father Sojan, who is recovering today from a minor accident suffered last week, or he would have been from his daughter, said: “I lived my dream through my daughter. I could not progress because we did not have the facilities to train. But here it is now…”.
Ancy Sojan (Photo TOI)
Ancy is from the Syrian Christian community of Nattika. Money was scarce, leading Sanoj to ferry passengers in his auto-rickshaw. “We are not financially well,” Sanoj recalled, “Our income depends on how much I earn from driving my auto-rickshaw, and it varies from day to day. Now, I am recovering from an injury, so it has affected our earnings.”“This record is dedicated to my father,” Ancy said in Bhubaneswar, “He often said that we didn’t have any records at the national level in the family. For him, this is a reward for all the trust he placed in me and all the sacrifices he made over the years. This is my way of giving something back to him and making him proud.”I Sojani includes Jansy, 47, the housewife-mother of Ancy. Younger son Dominic, 24, is studying business administration while youngest, Anjali, 20, aims to follow in her sister’s footsteps as a long jumper.Not far away, Sanoj, like Sojan, was a district-level gold medalist in the high jump, whose sporting ambitions ended before they began. “I am not a trained coach myself. I started my academy for budding athletes like Ancy, so I could pass on my experience to them,” Sanoj revealed.Sanoj first realized Andy’s potential when he was just a teenager. “At the U-14 State School Games in 2015, Ancy jumped 4.93-m to win the bronze. It was remarkable considering she was so small then, only 13 years old,” she recalled.In 2019, Ancy burst into the national athletics consciousness, recording a jump of 6.26m at the National School of Athletics in Punjab’s Sangrur.After Ancy’s record jump in Bhubaneswar on Saturday, Sanoj noticed what some long jump experts might have missed. “Until a year later, Ancy’s coupling extension had a problem. Not on Saturday. It was flawless,” he elaborated.Sojan considered that her daughter has yet to reach her full potential. “She’s not 100% here,” he said: “She needs to improve her jump and hold time. But I’m proud of her for breaking a 22-year-old national record set by Anju. She can now break the 7-m mark,” he added.Sanoj agreed. “I believe she can cross the 7m barrier,” he said.Anju, the OG, knows it will happen. “I am proud of her…I saw her jump with a smile on my face. Long jump has always been a Malayalee specialty. Proud that a Keralite broke my record,” Anju said before leaving Bengaluru to meet the new star.Young Ancy also believes that the 7-m is within reach.“Anju ma’am told me, “This is nothing. You broke the record, but now you have to keep doing it consistently and win medals at the World Championships and Olympics. This is a world jump, and soon we will go to 7-m,” said Ancy breathlessly.The 25-year-old, by far the third best long jumper in the country behind the protégés of Anju Shaili Singh and Mubassina Mohammed of Lakshadweep, will be chasing the 7-m. It has been in his mind for some time, but it needs a few technical adjustments.“I had some problems with my landing. My legs reached the right position, but my body was not following well. After that, I worked on my landing technique with the landing bar and other drills, and that helped me reach 6.75m,” he said.The progression should be gradual. And smart.“If I suddenly tried too much for 7m, it could affect my jump. Now, we focus on raising my consistency,” said the silver medalist of the Asian Games, “The 6.70m range should be my minimum level. It will happen. I’m much more confident about it now.”Ancy’s record jump is a testament to the fact that while sporting talent can emerge from anywhere, it is usually from modest backgrounds in India. And as in Ancy’s case, it can also be nurtured by two autorickshaw-plying men who once harbored similar dreams.
