India wins four medals at World Wushu Championship

Indian wushu players with their medals (image courtesy: Rajvir Wushu Facebook)

Asian Games bronze medallist wushu player Yumnam Sanathoi Devi led three other Indians to a haul of four medals from the recently-concluded 13th World Wushu Championship held at the Istora Sports Stadium in Jakarta. The tournament which got over last Wednesday, saw the Indians bag three silver medals and one bronze at this prestigious meet.

Apart from the Arjuna Awardee Sanathoi, the other silver-medallists were Pooja Kadian and Uchit Sharma while Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh grabbed the bronze.

This is the third consecutive silver medal for both Sanathoi Devi and Kadian. The experienced duo previously clinched the silver in the 2011 edition at Turkey and the 2013 edition at Malaysia.

Manipuri veteran Sanathoi who took up wushu in 2003, had a tough proposition in the final of the 52kg category as she faced the world champion Luan Zhang of China. Kadian too had to contend with a Chinese rival – Yuan Li – and she went down in straight rounds.

Meerut boy Uchit Sharma who was making his international debut, had earlier given a fine account of himself in the 52-kg semi-final as he toppled the Indonesian player Gunawan. However, Sharma ran out of steam in the final as he succumbed to Arnel Mandal in a hard-fought bout.

Budding talent Surya Bhanu Pratap impressed everybody with wins over experienced players from Malaysia, Macau and the USA but his run came to an end at the hands of former world champion Ali Magomedov of Russia in the last-four stage of the 60-kg competition.

However, L Budhchandra Singh and Puja Tomer made early exits from this tournament. While Singh lost to Yusuf Widitanto of Indonesia in 56kg, Tomer’s hopes were dealt a blow by Vietnam player Luan Thi Hoang in the 48kg event.