Ancy Sojan pips Shaili Singh at UAE Women's Athletics Gala

Ancy Sojan pipped fellow Indian Shaili Singh to win the silver medal at the 2025 UAE Women's Athletics Gala in Dubai on Sunday.

While Sojan leapt a distance of 6.54m to finish second, Singh took home the bronze with a jump of 6.48m. Egypt's Esraa Owis won the gold medal at a distance of 6.66m.

The UAE Women's Athletics Gala, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Level meet, had a nine-member field in women's long jump. Out of the nine, six athletes in contention were Indians.

Apart from Sojan and Singh, India's Moumita Mondal also finished in the top five with a best of 6.22m to finish fifth.

Mondal had shot to fame at the 2025 National Games in Uttarakhand earlier this year, winning medals in both women's 100m hurdles and women's long jump within just minutes of each other.

Among the Indians in contention, Kusuma Rava (6.16m) and Deepanshi Singh (6.03m) also crossed the six-metre mark to finish sixth and seventh respectively in Dubai.

The other Indian, Krittika Anandakumar was only one of the two athletes to not touch the 6m mark in the competition. She finished last with a best of 5.02m.

This development comes just days after the Athletics Federation of India announced that no Indian track and field athlete will be allowed to compete at foreign tours without a written permission from the national federation.

"The performance of the athletes will be invalid for record books if they don’t take mandatory approval of the AFI for an international exposure," Bahadur Singh Sagoo, the Athletics Federation of India's president had said.

"To safeguard the interest of the athletes, AFI has set a specific time period to grant permission to train and compete abroad," he added.