Six taekwondo fighters from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centre at LNCPE, Kariavattom here have been selected to the Indian national camp ahead of the Asian Games at Incheon, South Korea slated for September this year.
For Balagopal B and P Kanon Bala Devi, head coaches of the facility and incidentally married to each other, it is a proud moment after contributing a major share of fighters to the 32-member national camp.
Asian bronze medalist Manu George, Reshma V, Haritha C K, Margarette Maria Regi, K Milan Devi and Nidhi Kumari have been called up to the national camp which will be shortlisted to 24 in the near future.
Manu won the bronze medal in the 7th Asian Junior Taekwondo Championship at Jakarta, Indonesia last year while Milan Devi also put up a good show in the tournament. Reshma participated in the World Taekwondo Championship at Puebla, Mexico while Margarette is fresh from her campaign in the World Junior Championships at Chinese Taipei.
“We have a dedicated indoor facility and SAI provides us with accessories like headgear, chest gear, instep protector, gloves etc. Taekwondo is gaining huge popularity in the state as well as the country not only as a sport, but also as a way of self-defence,” says Balagopal.
Under their guidance of the couple, Kerala has produced solid performances in the national-level winning four championships in a row at the junior level. The state has also won the senior category last year, making the SAI centre at Kariavattom one of the hubs of the martial art training.
“Twelve of the 14 districts in the state now have dedicated facilities for the sport. The Kerala State Sports Council’s sports hostels at Thriruvananthapuram and Kozhikode and the GV Raja Sports School here and the Sports Division, Kannur have been producing good fighters,” the coach said.
Balagopal and Bala Devi train 32 fighters under the regular scheme and a further eight under the ‘centre of excellence’ scheme. Apart from these trainees, there are also a large number of rookies who train under the ‘come and play scheme’ to learn the martial art for a monthly fee of Rs 50.
“There has been an increased number of trainees who have come to learn self-defence here in the past couple of years. Taekwondo is the most suitable martial art technique for self-defence, especially for women,” Balagopal said, adding that the state government’s preference for Taekwondo in self-defence training has won the sport more fans in Kerala.