India’s experienced judoka Sushila Devi Likmabam lost the 48kg final against South Africa’s Michaela Whitebooi by a solitary point to settle for silver during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
File photo of Sushila Devi Likmabam (in white). AFP
Birmingham: India’s experienced judoka Sushila Devi Likmabam lost the 48kg final against South Africa’s Michaela Whitebooi by a solitary point to settle for silver during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Monday. This was followed by Vijay Kumar Yadav’s bronze medal in the 60kg repechage round, where he defeated Cypriot Petros Christodoulides by ‘Ippon’ to add India’s second medal in judo.
Sushila’s final turned out to be a cagey affair with both the judokas keeping their defence strong throughout while the South African clinched the top honours in the golden score (sudden death) by just a point.
For Sushila, this was her second silver at the CWG as she lost the 2014 Glasgow gold medal bout in the same category.
Earlier in the day, Sushila assured the country of a medal after progressing to the women’s 48kg final, beating Priscilla Morand of Mauritius at the Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
The 27-year-old from Manipur took down Morand with an ‘Ippon’. Ippon is a move in which a contestant throws his opponent to the mat with considerable force and speed so that the opponent lands on his back. An ippon is also awarded when a contestant immobilizes his opponent with a grappling hold-down for 20 seconds, or when an opponent gives up.
Commonwealth Games: India schedule, Results, Medals tally
A sub-inspector with Manipur Police, Shushila had progressed to the quarterfinals with a win over Harriet Bonface of Malawi earlier in the day.
In men’s 60kg repechage, Yadav ended the bronze medal match in eight seconds as he performed Ippon.
produced a superb performance to advance to the bronze medal match with a win by ‘Waza Ari’ over Dylon Munro of Scotland.
A ‘waza-ari’ is awarded after a player throws his opponent with control and accuracy, but not to the extent of an ippon.The 26-year-old Yadav, who has won the Commonwealth Championships in 2018 and 2019, had lost to Joshua Katz of Australia in the quarterfinal but made amends in the reprechage. He will face Petros Christodoulides of Cyprus in the bronze medal match.
Suchika Tariyal went down to Christianne Legentil in the Women’s 57kg bronze medal match. The judoka from Mauritius won by virtue of a waza-ari.
In another encounter, Jasleen Singh Saini went down to Australia’s Nathan Katz in the men’s 66kg bronze medal match.
Click here for our complete coverage of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
India had won two silver and two bronze at the Glasgow 2014, their best ever show in judo.
(With inputs from PTI)
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.