Asian Judo Championships: Anita Chanu bags bronze in otherwise dismal India showing

Angom Anita Chanu bagged a lone bronze medal for India in an otherwise dismal showing at the recently-concluded Asian Judo Championships held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Competing in the 52-kg category, Anita got the better of Kazakhstan’s Olessya Kutsenko in the bronze medal bout. Anita Chanu started the bout on an aggressive note, throwing her opponent 33 seconds into the bout to collect an Yuko and seize the initiative.

The Manipuri girl earned another Yuko to consolidate her position. The Kazakh judoka made things difficult for her when she earned a Shido (penalized) for avoiding contact twice in the first two minutes.

The lack of resistance from Kutsenko hastened the win for Anita as she got a bronze.

Anita, a 2003 Asian Championship bronze medallist (held in Jeju, South Korea), spared some of India blushes as none of the country’s judokas were able to make a podium finish.

Another Manipur judoka, Nirupama Devi, came close to a podium finish before bowing out. Competing in the 70-kg category, the Indian lost to Lenariya Mingazova of Kazakhstan after making the medal round through repechages.

There was large-scale disappointment from the other Indian women judokas.

2011 Asian Junior silver medallist Sunibala Devi Huidrom was handed a crushing defeat in just 8 seconds by Thailand’s Surattana Thongsri in the first round of the women’s 70-kg category. She had to settle for the 6th position.

National champion Rajni Bala lost to China’s Mo Qinqin in the repechage bout to finish 7th in the 49-kg category.

2002 Junior Asian Champion Navjot Chana lost to Japan’s Hirofumi Yamamoto in the 60-kg category.

2007 Asian Junior Champion Garima Chaudhary lost to Kazakhstan’s Marian Urdabayeva in the repechage round to finish 5th.

Jina Devi finished 8th in the 78-kg category.

Among the Indian men judokas, national Champion Sachin Kumar lost to Japan’s Yasuhiro Ebi in the 81-kg category by an Ippon in 1:22.

Avtar Singh, who received a bye in the first round, was clinically beaten by Uzbekistan’s Khurshid Nabiev in the second round in the 90-kg category.

Jitender Alumbayan went down to Thailand’s Teerawat Homklin in the the 100-kg category and finished 6th.

Manjeet Nandal lost to Japan’s Masaaki Fukuoka in the 66-kg category to finish 8th, while Anand finished 12th in the 73-kg category.

Japan topped the medals tally at this championship bagging eleven medals (6 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze), followed by Korea with as many medals (4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze) and Mongolia with 10 medals (1 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze).

India finished 12th among 13 participating countries with a lone bronze.