IMPHAL — Manipur emerged as the champion of the 1st Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS)- Sangai Cup Northeast Judo championship, which concluded at the Sports Authority of India North East Regional Centre Takyelpat near Imphal on Saturday.
Manipur Judo Association (MJA) hosted the championship held with an aim to create a structured pathway for judo in the Northeast state and help Indian judokas achieve success at global level.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]Manipur which had two teams -Manipur A (Total 41 medals- Gold 18, Silver 17 and Bronze six)and Manipur B (Total 36 medals- Gold 14, Silver nine and Bronze 13) won a total of 77 medals including 32 gold,16 silver and 19 bronze medals to win the champion title.
On the other hand, with a total of 20 medals (Gold 10,Silver three and Bronze seven),Arunachal secured the runner up title while Mizoram was placed third position with 13 medals(Gold one, Silver three and Bronze nine).
The fourth and fifth positions went to Assam (Gold one,Silver three and Bronze eight) and Meghalaya(Gold one,Silver one and Bronze 11) while Tripura(Silver seven and Bronze 10) and Nagaland (Silver one). Assam’s lone gold medallist judoka was Pollav (-80kg).
Manipur Youth Affairs and Sports minister Govindas Konthioujam;Virender Vashist of Judo Federation of India; MJA president Bijoy Koijam; Chief Executive Officer(IIS) Rushdee Warley; operational head(IIS)Tathagata Mukherjee; Dronacharya awardee and chief coach(IIS) Jiwan Sharma; Head Sports science(IIS)Samuel Pullinger and Media(IIS) Shemanth were present during the opening function of championship.
Meanwhile, speaking to Eastern Mirror , CEO IIS Rushdee Warley who has more than 20 years of experience in the sports industry, said that it's a win-win situation for his team to have such an opportunity for exploring the sports talents particularly judo in a state like Manipur.
IIS had been continuing a long term relationship with the government and two (judo) academies in nurturing the promoting the judo talents, he said.
“We want to continue such initiatives to provide scholarships to the young talents,” he added.
Through our judo experts and their subsequent feedback, we are also looking at some of the states in the Northeast, he added.
IIS is one of the country's best sports coaching centre training athletes for olympics and other games in boxing, judo, athletes etc.