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Pune, Jan 19: Fourteen medals is what Arunachal Pradesh have picked up at the Khelo India Youth Games. It is an impressive performance considering the fact that the first effort to provide sports infrastructure was only made in the year 2000 in the form of the SAI Special Area Games Centre.
Expectedly, weightlifting provided the biggest chunk of Arunachal’s medals - nine in all, four silver and five bronze.
The medallists from the weightlifting ring were, Silver medallists - Christina Tayeng (81kg girls' U-21), Anai Wangsu (55kg girls' U-17), Charu Pesi (61kg boys' U-17), Markio Tario (67kg boys' U-17), and Bronze medallists - Techi Nadam (45kg girls' U-21), P.H. Roshni (71kg girls' U-21), Liza Kamsha (64kg girls' U-17), Sandiya Gungli (40kg girls' U-17) and Golom Tinku (55kg boys' U-17).
In judo, Arunachal Pradesh picked up two silver and as many bronze through the Doyom sisters Kabi (U-17 girls' 48kg) and Kabin (U-21 girls' 48kg) who took back silver medals and Madin Hina (U-21 boys' 66kg) and Khomdan Wanghop (U-17 boys' 50kg), who were awarded bronze medals while boxer Kipa Parang took bronze in the U-21 boys' 52kg class.
A bulk of the state’s team live and train at the co-educational Sangay Lhaden Sports Academy which was set up at Itanagar in 2001 by the State Government under the department of sports and youth affairs. It is the only institute in the state where training and coaching are imparted along with academics.
The academy has 11 sports disciplines including archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, football, judo, karate-do, table tennis, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wushu. It has qualified coaches having NSNIS sports coaching background and qualified postgraduate and trained graduate teachers.
It is to Arunachal’s credit that it has produced medal winners at the School Games, Youth Games, and various national championships despite such scarce resources. A look at some of the medal-winners at KIYG is also instructive.
The Doyom sisters, Kobin and Kabi Doyom are from the Galo tribe in the West Siang district and both train at the Sangay Lhaden Sports Academy. Their parents are agriculturalists and also manage a livelihood from small-farming and local products. Both Kobin and Kabi train at the Sangay Lhaden Sports Academy under judo coach Ms. Varrozami Verte Manham and have brought laurels for the state in zonal and national level championships.
Another achiever in the group is weightlifter Golom Tinku. who finished third in Boys' Under-17 55kg category. With his mother Golom Echum managing their home by herself, he is now a trainee under the Army Ordinance Corps and based in Secunderabad.
Tinku lost his father at a very early stage and was fond of sports from early on. One of five children, with three sisters and a brother, Tinku used to train at the Sports Authority of India SAG center in Nahalagun, near the state capital Itanagar. Kit and a good diet were big issues as his mother is the lone bread earner in the family. But a determined Tinku managed to get selected at an AOC talent hunt in Itanagar in November 2016. Since then, his talent and hunger to succeed have driven him and here in Pune, Tinku had a total lift of 201kg with 89kg in snatch and 112kg in clean and jerk to take the boys' U-17 55kg bronze.
A third standout performer for Arunachal was Khomdan Wanghop, from the remote Tirap district that borders Assam and Nagaland in the extreme east of the state and who now is a trainee at the Sangay Lhaden Sports Academy.
From a very poor family, Khomdan’s native region of Tirap borders the Changlang and Longding districts of Assam and Nagaland and are together known as the TCL region. Underground elements are active in the area along with the prevalence of a drug problem, and children are often drawn away into anti-social activities.
Getting away from that background, Khomdan – one of seven children -- is now a student of Class IX at the academy. Where he earned admission in 2016-17 during a statewide selection process. He was able to reproduce that determination and hard work with a judo bronze at the Khelo India Youth Games 2019 in Pune.
Boxer Kipa Parang in the Boys Under-21 52kg class was the state’s other medal-winner picking up a bronze for his efforts.
