CHENNAI: With two gold, a silver and a bronze, Indian judokas had a historic outing at the recently-concluded 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. India had never won a judo gold at the CWG but it all changed when Asmita Dey finished on top of the podium in the -48kg weight category. Harsh Singh made it two in a row a few minutes later as he won the -60kg final.
Yamini Mourya lost her final to local favourite England judoka in the -57kg weight category to settle for a silver medal. Unnati Sharma is the other medallist in the discipline winning bronze in the -63kg weight category.
Coach Jiwan Kumar Sharma witnessed the historic moments from the sidelines as he accompanied the team to Glasgow. Even before flying out for Scotland, Sharma was optimistic of a ground-breaking show by Indian judokas and told this daily that the gold medal drought could end this time. It did and Sharma was over the moon when spoken about it on arrival to the country. "The chances of winning gold medals were bright as judokas got enough exposure before the event. IIS judokas trained in France and Japan before the CWG and it really helped," Sharma told TNIE.
The coach, however, felt the team could have won more gold. "Yamini could have won a gold. It was a tough bout and it went to Golden Score. Similarly, Unnati Sharma lost the semifinal despite leading at one point of time. These all could have translated into gold medals," added the coach.
The judo medallists met the sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya in New Delhi on Tuesday. The minister felicitated the medallists and presented them cheques for winning laurels for the country. Gold medallists were given Rs 30 lakh each while the silver and bronze medallists were given Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively.
Asmita was the cynosure of all eyes as she landed at the airport in the national capital. Speaking on Asmita's show, Sharma said the Tripura athlete was determined to pocket the gold medal. "She was trailing in both the semifinal and final but came back strongly to win the contests. It showed her fighting spirit. Shushila Devi Likmabam could have done it in the previous edition in 2022 but had to settle with silver after losing the final. My advice was simple - just go out there and do your best. More than physical, it's the psychological preparations which matter," said Sharma.
Yamini felt she fought till the last in the final and said she can improve a lot for the future. "I feel there is a need for tactical improvement as far as my game is concerned. My opponent in the final has played a lot more competitions than me and that helped her," the Madhya Pradesh judoka said.
Like her compatriot, Unnati said the campaign was good but had to improve tactically. "I am satisfied with the bronze. I need to improve tactically. I was leading in the semifinal but lost it eventually. If I have to finish on top, I have to avoid such mistakes," she said.