Pugilist Sandhyarani took up the martial art after tiff with her coach; wins her first silver at Asian Games.
Boxing’s loss is wushu’s gain. This is the story of Wangkhem Sandhyarani Devi who won the silver medal in the women’s Sanshou 60 kg at the Nansha Gymnasium on Wednesday.
If not for injustice by their boxing coach during their 2003 preparatory camp for the Asian Boxing Championship, Sandhyarani said she would have continued her career in boxing.
“I was a boxer. I was in the Asian Championship camp in 2003. But because of some problem with the coach, seven of the girls, left the camp. Mary Kom was also part of the group,” Sandhyarani revealed on Wednesday when asked about how she got into this little known sport.
Luckily for Sandhyarani one of her childhood friend was into wushu during that time and she suggested her to take up this sport. “One of my childhood friends told me to try wushu. I played my first wushu national at the end of 2004 and won a silver medal there.”
Wushu proved lucky for Sandhyarani. The silver medal helped her get a job in the CRPF.
Since, then she has not looked back.
Sandhyarani was handicapped by a leg injury which she picked up in her semifinal win against Paloy Barckkham of Laos. That proved to be a decisive factor in her losing 0-2 to the Iranian to fetch India’s second medal in the sport after Bimoljit Singh’s bronze on Tuesday. Azadpour, who defeated Wu Tzu Yi of Taipei in the semifinals with a heavily strapped leg, was the more aggressive of the two finalists and was the unanimous winner in both the rounds.
“I wanted to win the gold, but unfortunately I got injured in the semifinal. I hurt my ankle and could not kick. I was in terrible pain during the final. That’s why I was playing a defensive game,” said the 27-year-old Manipuri, who won a bronze in the 2008 Asian Championship in Macau.
The Iranian once threw Sandhyarani outside the area and every time the Indian had the chance to catch her leg, she wriggled out of danger with alacrity.
The CRPF employee said she had to move up the weight class for the Games from 56 to 60 kg because there was no competition in her original weight category here.
As they say, whatever happens, happens for the best.
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