J&K cop, three others clinch bronze in wushu
JAKARTA/JAMMU: Along with winning a bronze for India in the Asian Games in wushu, Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh gave the conflict-scarred state of Jammu and Kashmir reason to cheer. The cheer soon spread to the rest of the country as three more Indian wushu fighters won bronze on Wednesday evening. This was the first time India won medals in this martial arts event which has sanda, a hand to hand combat mixing kick-boxing and wrestling. The other three, Naorem Roshibini Devi, Santosh Kumar and Narender Grewal too lost in the semi-finals as India produced an unprecedented result.
Before this edition, India had taken part in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Asian Games and this four medal haul has been the best so far. In 2014 Incheon, India had won two bronze, with Grewal clinching one in men’s sanda 60kg. In the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, India had won one (bronze) and two (one silver, one bronze) medals respectively.
Roshibini Devi lost in the women’s sanda 60kg semifinals to Cai Yingying of China. Santosh Kumar lost in the men’s sanda 56kg to Truong Giang Bui of Vietnam and Grewal was beaten by Akmal Rakhimov of Uzbekistan. Any hopes of an Indian wushu player appearing in the finals on Thursday went up in smoke as Singh lost in the semi-final of the 60kg sanda event to Iran’s Erfan Ahangarian. But Singh stole the limelight as his achievement got bigger as he overcame poor infrastructure in a state torn by strife.
Singh works for the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Along with Singh, 22, the chief coach of the Indian wushu team, Kuldeep Handoo, too is from Jammu. Handoo, who is in charge in his third Asian Games, said Singh is the only athlete from the state under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). Singh went to the Games having won two world championship bronze medals and silver in the World Cup. “He worked hard for months together at a SAI centre and the credit for the remarkable feat goes to him and his coach Kuldeep Handoo,” said Ranjeet Kalra, vice-chairman of the J&K Sports Council and vice-president of the state’s wushu association.
Pardeep Kumar, another wushu player from the state, lost 1-2 to Puja Riyaya of Indonesia in men’s sanda 70kg quarter-finals.