CHENNAI: It's not easy being Yamini Mourya. Having won Junior Asian Championships bronze around a decade ago, the Madhya Pradesh judoka has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in the last 10 years. Even as she started making her mark as a judoka in 2016, Yamini had to undergo knee surgery next year. Six years later, she became the first woman judoka from the country to win a medal (bronze) at the World University Games. But as fate would have it, she once again has to undergo knee surgery in 2024 bringing her career to a screeching halt.
Yamini, however, came back strongly, winning silver in the Taipei Asian Open in 2025 before clinching gold at the Hong Kong Asian Open in the same year. Ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth Games, she finished first at the Dakar African Open in March. A gold might have slipped out of her hands in the Golden Score during the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow a few days ago but the silver she won can turn out to be the most auspicious medal of her sporting career so far.
At 28, Yamini is still 'unemployed' and this medal can help her land a job. The Madhya Pradesh government has already announced it along with Rs 25 lakh cash prize. The union government also announced a cash prize of Rs 20 lakh for the judoka on Tuesday. "She desperately wanted to medal at the CWG. She lost the -57kg weight category final against the English judoka but the silver medal is quite a big achievement and can shape her life going forward," C Jiwan Sharma, judo coach, told this daily.
Yamini's younger sister Ragini, who plays taekwondo, is employed with the Indo Tibetan Border Police and their father, Hariom Mourya, is happy that the CWG medal finally can get the judoka a job. "The MP government has announced it as soon as she won the medal. I am hoping soon she will have a government job now," the father, who works as an LIC agent, said.
It all started when Yamini was in class IV. "A talent hunt was organised in our school in Sagar district. I started with taekwondo for a couple of days before switching to judo on being advised by coach Deepak Rajak. After training at the local academy for three years till 2011, I moved to MP State Academy. Four years later, I shifted to the SAI centre in Patiala," Yamini recalled.
Yamini is second among four siblings (three sisters and one brother). Like any parent, Hariom, at times, found it difficult to maintain balance between his works and children's sporting careers but it could never deter him from encouraging and promoting them to excel at the sports they were pursuing. "It's not that I never faced any difficulty. Sometimes that happened especially while accompanying them to various tournaments but that was it. My son pursues powerlifting while another daughter is into taekwondo. So most of them are into some or other sports and we always encouraged them to follow their dreams," added father.
Yamini gave a tough fight to her English opponent before losing the final bout. "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 judoka said.
With the Asian Games round the corner, Yamini will have an opportunity to make it two in a row at the grand stage. Hopefully, the CWG silver will only spur her on to go one better in Japan when the showpiece continental event begins next month.
