Aichi: After a controversial last minute entry into the Asian Games squad, India’s Roshibina Devi won silver on Thursday in Wusu. She lost 0-2 to China’s Zhang Xiaoyu in the women’s 60kg Sanda final. According to the reports, the Chinese fighter won both rounds 5-0.
This is Roshibina’s second successive Asian Games silver and is an extension of her achievement at the continental Games. In 2018, she had won a bronze during her Asian Games debut in Jakarta at the age of 17. Back then, she had defeated Pakistan’s Mubashra Akhtar in the quarter-finals before losing to China’s Cai Yingying in the semi-finals.
She had won a silver at the Hangzhou Games in 2023. With her latest win in Aichi-Nagoya, she now has medals at three successive editions of the Asian Games. She is the first Indian wushu athlete to achieve this remarkable feat.
She hails from Kwasiphai Mayai Leikai in Manipur’s Bishnupur district. She competes in Sanda, which is the combat discipline of wushu. This discipline combines striking, kicking and throwing techniques.
According to reports, she was trained at Sports Authority of India centre in Imphal under coach Maibam Premkumar Singh.
Bronze at 2016 Junior World Wushu Championships in Burgas, Bulgaria was her first major achievement. She had won gold at the Asian Junior Wushu Championships in Gumi, South Korea in 2017.
She was awarded the Arjuna Award for 2023. But her place in the Asian Games team this year was quite uncertain until the last moment.
She had lost the selection trial to teammate Divyanshi Choudhary. But she returned to the team came after Divyanshi was withdrawn from the squad following medical examinations.
The Wushu Association of India, according to reports, had claimed that Divyanshi had suffered a partial high-grade ACL tear. But Divyanshi had alleged harassment. She had alleged of being bullied by Roshibina at the Wushu camp in Patiala. But she later apologised in a video. The Wushu Association had declined such allegations.
