Berlin, July 22: Asian Games silver medallist Ancy Sojan made it to the women’s long jump finals courtesy her last attempt in the qualification round on an ordinary day for the Indians in the World University Games here on Monday.
The 24-year-old Sojan fouled her first attempt and then jumped 5.97m next. She was languishing at seventh at that time in the Group A qualifications but her last round effort of 6.20m took her to the fourth spot and 10th overall.
China’s Xiong Shiqi ended on top in the Group A qualifications with 6.41m effort, while Samantha Dale of Australia was second with 6.38m. Samira Attermeyer (6.22m) of Germany was third.
Sojan, who also won a silver in the Asian Championships in South Korea in May, has a season’s best of 6.54m and a personal best of 6.71m.
Meanwhile, Ruchit Pratapbhai Mori made it to the semifinals of the men’s 400m hurdles after finishing third in his heat race with a time of 50.58 seconds.
The opening day of athletics competition saw only two events involving Indians.
Tennis player Vaishnavi Adkar entered the women’s singles quarterfinals after beating Angella Okutoyi of Kenya 6-3 6-4 in the round of 16 match.
It was a mixed day for the Indians in the table tennis arena with the women’s doubles pair of Murad A and Vaghela D, and the men’s doubles duo of Kotecha T and Wani S winning their respective round of 64 matches. Ayaz Murad and Devarsh Vaghela lost his singles group matches.
In beach volleyball, the Indian women’s team of Kanimozhi and Gowshika lost to Latvia in a pool C match.
In fencing, the women’s foil team lost to Poland 18-45 in a round of 16 match, while the men’s Epee team suffered 33-45 defeat to Poland in a round of 32 match.
In Taekwondo, only Rishita Dang won her bout, defeating Celine Askarjian of Lebanon 2-0.
India lost to Latvia 55-111 in the men’s preliminary Group B basketball match.
India had dished out its best performance in the last edition of the Games, winning 26 medals — 11 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze — and had finished seventh in the overall medal tally. (PTI)
