Roshibina Devi bagged silver in Wushu for India Hangzhou(China):Naorem Roshibina Devi who won silver medal in women's 60kg sanda event of wushu dedicated her victory for the victims of Manipur violence which is raging between Meitei and Kuki communities in her native since May this year.
A member of Meitei community, she hails from Kwashiphai village in Bishnupur district adjoining Churachandpur, which is dominated by the Kuki ethnic community, Roshibina put up a valiant fight against local heavyweight Wu Xiaowei.
"Manipur is burning. Fighting is going on in Manipur. I can't go to my village. I want to dedicate this medal to those who are protecting us and suffering there," Roshibina said after she clinched the silver, while fighting her tears when spoke.
"I don't know what will happen, the fighting has been continuing. When will it stop and return to normal life of earlier times," an inconsolable Roshibina added.
On Wednesday, she spoke to her parents who asked her to focus on the final and not to get distracted by the Manipuri violence.
"They told me to focus on the match and not on other things. My family is fine. I don't speak to them regularly as my coaches say the violence at home will distract me."
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"We prepared very well and we could do well here and won a silver," the silver medallist said.
She has kept the Indian flag flying high in the Asian Games by securing a silver in Wushu. The Chinese challenge of Wu Xiaowei proved too much for her and she lost with a scoreline of 2-0.
In the first round, Wu scored some points with a takedown while Roshibina attempted to get hold of her opponent's leg but failed to push her off the mat to level the scores or score enough to win the round. As a result, the judges ruled the round in favor of Wu handing her a 1-0 lead in the bout.
It looked like Roshibina has bounced back in the contest as she took down her opponent early in the second round. However, a kick in the torso from Wu ended Roshibina's campaign and she earned silver by the end of the proceedings. Notably, it is India's 23rd medal in the ongoing Asian Games. Also, Roshibina bettered her performance from the previous tournaments by converting bronze into silver.
Roshibina Devi came into the competition with high expectations and she lived up to them by concluding the competition as a runer-up. On her way to the final, she produced a stellar performance against Kazakhstan's Aiman Karshyga in the quarterfinal making short work of her opponent. Then, Vietnam’s Thi Thu Thuy Nguyen was her next victim in the Semis and she earned a spot in the final beating her.
Notably, Roshibina equalled India's best performance in Wushu which was associated with Sandhyarani Devi who won silver in the Asian Games 2010. (with PTI inputs)
