Shushila's medal a silver lining for judo in India

At the Coventry Arena on Monday, Likmabam competed with stitches on her knee but that was hardly a handicap as she won her second silver medal of the Commonwealth Games –separated by eight years.

Shushila Devi Likmabam wasn't in the best of places before the Commonwealth Games. She missed the team’s only exposure-cum-competition trip to Spain in June because of a knee injury in training. The last month, which should have been all about fine-tuning, was just a race against time to get fit for the Games.

Shushila Devi Likmabam with her silver medal at the podium. (Twitter/@WeAreTeamIndia)

At the Coventry Arena, on Monday, Shushila competed with stitches on her knee but that didn't hold her back as she won her second Commonwealth Games silver medal – separated by eight years.

The 27-year-old Indian, ranked 105 in the world, put up a sensational performance to upset the top seed and World No 30, Priscilla Morand of Mauritius, in the semi-finals of 48kg. In the final, she lost to Michaela Whitebooi of South Africa, world ranked 32, after putting up a tough fight and taking the contest to the golden score period.

“What Shushila did was beyond expectations. We were counting on her for a medal but to beat the top seed and win a medal is incredible,” said India’s chief coach Jiwan Kumar Sharma.

“We were just hoping that her stitches should not come out. It’s been a difficult phase for her after she injured herself at the camp in Delhi and also could not go for the exposure tour,” he further added.

The fact that an international training camp for the Indian judokas took place after three years speaks of how low the sport is in the pecking order. Even international competitions come their way in a trickle. If that’s not enough, the Indian judo federation is currently de-recognised by the Sports Ministry. The Sports Authority of India conducted trials for the CWG and arranged for the training camp. Last year, the entire judo team had to withdraw from Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Bishkek after a player tested positive. Shushila, however, made it to Tokyo Olympics through the continental quota.

Despite the difficulties, Shushila and the rest have kept the fire burning. Rather, the trials strengthened the resolve of the six-member judo team with the sport making its way back into the CWG programme after eight long years.

In the 2014 Glasgow Games, Shushila was 19 when she became only the third Indian judoka to win a silver medal at the Games. It was then a long, long wait for her. She won the silver medal at the Asian Cup in 2018 and 2019 and managed well to finish 5th at Tashkent Grand Prix and Zagreb Grand Prix. The impressive performances at the international level saw represent India as the only judoka in Tokyo. She lost in the first round to Hungary's Éva Csernoviczki -- an Olympic and worlds medallist.

The focus then shifted to Birmingham Games and Sushila did not want to lose this opportunity.

“She was so confident and very good with timing her throws,” says Sharma, who has been training her since 2011.

“She was confident and when you are in a crisis situation, you are more determined to prove yourself. It’s been a tough journey for the team. The world’s top players compete in 25-30 tournaments in a year and to come here and beat them shows that our players are equally good. They need more competitions. Support from the government has increased and we are hoping it will only go up after this performance.”