Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2020: Ancy Sojan selected in national squad after brilliant display at Khelo India Youth Games 2020

Kerala's Ancy Sojan, who came under the spotlight for her terrific performances at the Khelo India Youth Games 2020, has been named in the 25-member Indian national squad set to travel to Hangzhou, China, for the 2020 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships.

The background

Sojan is a rising track and field athlete in India and one of Kerala's top athletes at the moment. She made the headlines last year when she recorded a 6.24m long jump at the Kerala State School meet.

She had also been named in the India camp for the South Asian Games last year but decided to give it a miss to take part in the State School Athletics meet in Kannur.

The youngster bagged four gold medals at the SGFI National School Athletics Championship last year.

The heart of the matter

Ancy lit up KIYG 2020 winning three gold medals in athletics. She clinched gold in the Women's Under-21 long jump event by with a leap of 6.36m, which is her personal best and also a new KIYG record.

On the same day, the rising athletics sensation claimed another gold medal - this time in the Women's Under-21 100m race with a timing of 12.21 seconds. Her third gold medal came in in the 4x100m relay event.

Sojan is a student at the Nattila government Fisheries HSS in Thrissur and her performances at KIYG did not go unnoticed.

The national selection committee met on January 20 and decided to pick the youngster for the 2020 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships.

The excited 18-year-old told TOI after the inclusion, "I'm proud to represent my country in the Asian Indoor meet. I have never competed in Indoors, I will give my best and wish to bring a medal to my country. I'm also in fine form and hope to maintain it in the China meet."

Majority of the athletes for the China meet were picked taking into consideration performances at KIYG 2020 as well as other all-India inter-varsity meets. There was no camp held for selection as many of these athletes are set to give their respective exams.

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Here are the final squads for the meet:

1500m Men: Sunil Dawar and Ajith Kumar

3000m Men: Shankar Lal Swami, Ajith Kumar, and Kartik Jayraj Karkera

Men's 60m Hurdles: Yashwant Kumar Laveti

Men's triple jump: Shah Jay Pradip

Men's High jump: Sarvesh Kushare

Men's Shot Put: Tajender Singh Pal Toor

60m Women: Y Jyothi and Dutee Chand

800m Women: Lili Das

1500m Women: Chanda, Ankita

Women's 60m hurdles: Sapna Kumari, Y Jyothi

Women's long jump: Sherin A, Ancy Sojan

Women's triple jump: Sandra Babu, Aishwariya V

Women's Shot Put: Kiran Baliyan, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, Abha Khatua

Women's Pentathlon: Mareena George, Soumiya Murugan

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What's next?

The Khelo India Youth Games is a huge platform for budding sportspersons to gain limelight. Ancy Sojan has made the most of the opportunity and it will be interesting to see how she fares on the bigger stage in China.