Yamini Mourya settles for silver to complete India’s rich judo medal haul
India celebrated a landmark day in judo as Asmita Dey and Harsh Singh clinched historic gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, becoming the country’s first-ever women’s and men’s champions in the sport here on Friday.
Competing in the women’s – 48kg category, the 23-year-old Asmita staged a spirited comeback to defeat Canada’s Heidi Quach in a dramatic golden score contest. Trailing after conceding a yuko and a penalty early in the bout, the Tripura judoka fought back to level the scores before producing a decisive yuko in sudden-death overtime to seal India’s maiden Commonwealth Games judo gold.
Ever since judo was introduced as a medal sport at the 1990 Auckland Games, India had won medals in every edition but never a gold. Harsh soon doubled the celebrations by becoming the country’s first male Commonwealth Games judo champion with a stunning victory over Australia’s Joshua Katz in the men’s -60kg final.
The 23-year-old, making his Commonwealth Games debut, produced a tactically disciplined display against the experienced Australian Olympian before executing a match-winning waza-ari with 41 seconds remaining. He then defended resolutely to complete a memorable upset over the Birmingham 2022 bronze medallist.
Meanwhile, India’s Yamini Mourya settled for the women’s 57kg judo silver medal after going down to England’s Acelya Toprak in a hard-fought final on Friday.
