Youth Olympic Games 2018: Tababi Devi Thangjam wins silver, doubles India’s medal tally

India added two silver medals to its tally on the opening day of competitions at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires on Sunday. 

Tababi Devi Thangjam won India's second medal in the girl's 44kg category in Judo on Sunday after losing to Maria Gimenez of Venezuela in the final. The Manipur athlete became the first judoka to win a medal for a country at the Olympics – junior or senior.

The 2017 Asian Cadet champion Tababi lost out 0-2 to Gimenez who is a Pan American U18 Championships gold medalist. Gimenez scored 1-0 on the ippon, 1-0 on waza-ari and Tababi was handed 1 penalty point. 

Tababi Devi beat Bhutan’s Yangchen Wangmo 10-0 in the elimination Round of 16, Erza Muminoviq of Kosovo in the quarterfinals and Ana Viktorija Puljiz of Crotia 10-0 in the semifinals.

Earlier, shooter Shahu Tushar Mane clinched India’s first medal at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. Tushar Mane bagged silver medal as he finished second in his discipline of 10m air rifle men’s event behind Russia’s Shamakov Grigorii. The 16-year-old Indian shooter lost the gold medal by just 1.7 points.

Mane, who qualified third for the final, shot 247.5 to win the silver while Grigorii Shamakov took the gold with 249.2. Aleksa Mitrovic of Serbia won the bronze with a score of 227.9.

India have 46 athletes representing the country in 13 sports at the prestigious event catering to the youth. This is India’s largest contingent at the Youth Olympics. India won two medals — a silver and a bronze — in the last Youth Olympics in 2014 in Nanjing in China.