Asian Games: Ancy Sojan wins women's long jump silver

Ancy Sojan won silver in the women's long jump at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, 27 September 2026. Sportstar, The Indian Express and Mint reported the final. Mint placed it at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.

Sojan is the national record holder. Before the final, Sportstar said she and Shaili Singh would jump for gold on Sunday evening, after a silver for Sawan, a silver for Tajinderpal Singh Toor and a bronze for Prachi.

Mint said Sojan, 25, from Thrissur, led for most of the competition. Her best was 6.53 metres. China's Huang Yingying jumped 6.55 metres on her last attempt. The gap was two centimetres.

The Indian Express and Mint gave the same order of jumps. Sojan opened with 6.49 metres and was first from that attempt. Mint reported a foul in the second round that left her lead in place. In the fifth round she improved to 6.53 metres after Huang had drawn level at 6.49 metres. Her sixth jump measured 6.49 metres again. The Indian Express said she held the gold-medal position from the opening jump until Huang's last attempt.

Sportstar said that, going into the final round, the Hangzhou 2023 silver medallist was first at 6.53 metres and Shaili Singh was third at 6.42 metres. China's Tan Mengyi then jumped 6.46 metres on her last attempt and took bronze. Huang's 6.55 metres moved Sojan to second. Sportstar also set out the countback if Sojan had matched 6.55 metres: her second-best effort of 6.53 metres would have ranked ahead of Huang's 6.49 metres. The last jump was 6.49 metres, and the gold went to Huang.

Shaili Singh finished fourth. The Indian Express said every one of her jumps was legal and that the series moved forward: 6.25 metres, then 6.34 metres on each of the next two attempts, then 6.41 metres and 6.42 metres. Mint said she had moved into third at 6.41 metres and then 6.42 metres before Tan's 6.46 metres. India finished with silver and fourth place.

Mint's profile gives the name Ancy Sojan Edappilly, born on 1 March 2001 in Nattika, Thrissur district, Kerala. She began as a sprinter and later switched to the long jump. She trains at the Reliance Athletics High Performance Centre in Navi Mumbai. Mint said she is a TOPS Development athlete and a Chief Petty Officer in the Indian Navy.

The same report said her first big continental result was silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games with 6.63 metres. She later took silver at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi and bronze at the 2026 Asian Indoor Championships in Tianjin. Sportstar identified her on Sunday as the Hangzhou 2023 silver medallist. This is her second Asian Games silver in a row in the event.

The Indian Express and Mint both reported the national record. In June 2026, at the National Inter-State Championships, she jumped 6.88 metres. Mint said the meet was in Bhubaneswar and that the 6.88 metres came on her fifth attempt. It broke Anju Bobby George's mark of 6.83 metres, set at the 2004 Athens Olympics and standing for 22 years. The Indian Express reported that Sojan said after that record: "This national record is a statement that India has jumpers who have range and are rising."

Both papers said she is the second Indian woman, after Anju Bobby George, to win two Asian Games medals in the women's long jump. Mint said Anju remains the only Indian woman to have won the Asian Games gold in the event, in 2002. Mint also said Sunday's silver was added to India's athletics medals in Aichi-Nagoya while the team was still waiting for a first track-and-field gold at these Games.

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Mint reported that the next mark Sojan has already named is seven metres. No Indian woman has cleared that distance.