Jeswin and Ancy at their scorching best

Notch up their career best in long jump; little quality in rest of the events

Young Jeswin Aldrin and Ancy Sojan were in a zone of their own, getting to their career best, in the long jump events of the first leg of the Indian Grand Prix at the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium here on Sunday.

But for the great performances by these two, the other events simply fell flat what with the seasoned Hima Das and national shot put record-holder Manpreet Kaur even biting the dust, though unexpectedly.

Ancy, the Kerala sand-kicker continued her love affair with the pit here, as she powered her way to an exciting win in the women’s long jump, often competing against herself as her rivals could hardly get going. The Thrissur collegian, who had posted an impressive 6.51m on her 21st birthday on March in the Indian Open jumps competition, started the day with a 6.20m before gainining strength to strength through the series.

A foul in the second was followed by her best of the day as Ancy got to 6.55m — the second best effort on Indian soil — and then leaped to an equally superb 6.52m in the fourth. She returned a distance of 6.40m in her fifth, before overstepping on her sixth.

The unassuming Tamil Nadu lad, Tamil Nadu’s Jeswin Aldrin was hardly considered a favourite prior to the men’s long jump final, the tag firmly resting on Mohammed Anees Yahiya who had got to 8.15m in the season opener last fortnight. But, with Yahiya failing to get going, Jeswin, a second year degree student hailing from Tirunelveli, clawed his way to the top with a terrific sequence.

The 21-year-old, who had won the South Zone boys’ under-20 title with a best of 7.97m, last year in Kozhikode, was in the lead straight away before unleashing an almost unbelievable series, getting past the coveted 8m-mark through his last three jumps — 8.09m in the fourth, followed by an improved 8.11m and 8.20m.

The last effort, again, was the second best in the event by an Indian — behind national record-holder M. Sreeshankar (8.26m) who missed today’s action.