Asian Games Athletics: Ancy Sojan wins long jump silver, Shaili Singh finishes 5th

Ancy Sojan Edappilly delivered a brilliant performance when it mattered the most. She set a new Personal Best (PB) of 6.63 metres - cutting down 0.07m from her previous best - and won the silver medal in the women's long jump event at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Ancy started her jump with a 6.13m attempt and was in fifth in the order after one end. Then in the second jump, she made a massive improvement when she leapt 6.49m to bring her back into the medal contention.

On her third attempt, she equalled her PB of 6.56m to jump up to the second spot for a silver medal. Ancy produced a 6.30m jump in her fourth attempt before landing at the 6.63m mark from the take-off board in the fifth. With this mark, she broke her PB achieved at the Federation Cup in May this year.

Ancy remained second for the rest of the competition. She gave the sixth jump a miss as Hong Kong's Nga Yan Yue could leap only 6.50m for the bronze medal.

The 22-year-old won the medal battering all expectations, as her more famed competitor from India, Shaili Singh, had a disappointing day out there.

Shaili, an Asian Athletics Championships silver medallist with a 6.54m jump, finished fifth with a best effort of 6.48m, way below her PB of 6.76m achieved at the Indian Grand Prix 4 in April.

The 19-year-old started with a good jump of 6.38m which kept her in contention for a bronze medal after the first end. But, Shaili's second and third attempts did not go according to her plan as she could manage 6.34m and 6.15m and eventually slipped to the fifth position after three ends.

Even on her fourth attempt, she could manage just 6.31m. On the fifth attempt, she bettered her mark to 6.48m but could not take her up in the medal standings. On the sixth attempt, her effort went further below at 6.23m.

Earlier this year, Ancy missed the Asian Championships medal as she finished fourth with a best effort of 6.41m, whereas Japanese Sumire Hata took the gold medal with 6.97m.