Judokas sweat it out in Mumbai

The Senior National Judo Championships, which returned to the city after eight years, came to a conclusion with the medal bouts on Sunday. An estimated crowd of 200 braved the sweltering Mumbai heat at the Andheri Sports Complex to watch the judokas sweat it out for the national gold in the tournament.

Jatinder Pal of AIPSCB defeated Pankaj Tanwar of Delhi in the over 100kg category, the heaviest weight group contested for the evening. Pal showed great strength and technique to overcome his opponent under a minute. In the heaviest category for women — over 78kg — Ritu R of Haryana was victorious in a hard-fought gold medal match against Sneha Tadiyal of Delhi.

The tournament is being conducted by the Mumbai Judo Association, under the auspices of the Judo Federation of India.

Virender Singh of Indo Tibetan Border Police used his quicker reflexes and superior skills to good measure against his bigger-built rival from Punjab, Kuljinder Singh to throw him and score an Ippon to win the gold in the men’s 81kg category. The 60kg gold medal was won by Chana Navjot of All India Police, who got the better of Haryana’s Lal Bansi.

Delhi women judokas cornered glory, with two of their fighters winning gold medals, in the 70kg and 48kg categories. In the 70kg weight group, Jina Devi overcame Manipur’s H Sunibala, while in the 48kg category, Shantimala Devi proved too strong for CRPF’s Bem Bem Devi. It could have been a hat-trick of gold medals for Delhi, but Nayana Paul lost to UP’s Gari Chaudhary in the 63kg final and had to settle for silver.

Chanu Gomti secured at least one gold medal for the CPRF by defeating ITBP’s Kalpana Devi in the women’s 52kg category. Maharashtra’s only medal prospects Nikhil Suvarna in men’s 100kg+ category and Hetal Dave in women’s 78kg+ category lost their respective bronze medal bouts to Udayvir Singh of BSF and Arti Sharma as the state remained empty handed in the Championship.

Men: 100kg+ Jatinder Pal (AIPSCB) gold; Pankaj Tanwar (Delhi) silver; Udayvir Singh BSF; Sanjeev Singh (SSCB), broze; 81 kg: Virender Singh (Indo Tibetan Border Police) gold; Kuljinder Singh (Punjab) silver; Vikender Singh (CISF), Sahil Pathania (All India Police) bronze; 60 kg: Chana Navjot (All India Police): gold; Lal Bansi (Haryana): Silver; Bhupinder Singh (Punjab), N K Romen Singh (SSCB) bronze. Women: 78kg+: Ritu R (Haryana)gold; Sneha Tadiyal (Delhi) silver; R Rekha (Haryana) silver; Jaibhai Swapnali (Mah-B), Jagjeet Kaur (CISF) bronze