Can Judo help India bridge the void created by no Shooting at the Games
Judo is being contested for the 4th time in the Commonwealth Games and India overall have won 5 silver and 3 bronze medals with the 2014 edition being the best with 2 silver and 2 bronze.
This year 6 Judokas are set to participate in Birmingham.
India had participated in Madrid European Open in which Nithin Chauhan won a silver medal in the 66kg category.
Although he is not part of the CWG squad the others would have benefitted from the exposure trips where top ranked players competed against them.
Sushila Devi (WR 103) is one of the most experienced Judokas. She has won a silver medal in the 2014 edition along with winning a gold at the South Asian Games.
Last year she was the lone representative for India at the Olympics but couldn’t go past the 1st round.
Overall she has won 2 silver medals at the Continental Cup and a bronze at the Continental Championships.
Vijay Kumar Yadav (26) has been playing since 2015 in the senior level winning bronze at Asia Cup in 2018 and winning the Commonwealth Championships twice at the age of 22.
He reached a career high rankings of 22 in 2018 but faded away slowly starting from the Asian Games where he lost in the 1stround.
He is now ranked 155 in the 60kg category and will be looking to regain back his form slowly starting with CWG.
Jasleen Singh Saini (24) has been one of India’s consistent judokas since 2014 where he won his first global medal in the cadet section at the Asian Cadets Open.
Although after that he did not win any medals but was one of the few to take part in maximum number of events by Indian Judokas.
In the recent European Cup he won the 1st round in Pool A but couldn’t go further. He has a WR of 161 and should be the one to watch out for.
Remember India had only one tour after the Tokyo Olympics. With no match practice and experience it is difficult for athletes to perform at the global meet.
India Team
Men
Vijay Yadav 60kg, Jasleen Saini 66kg, Deepak Deswal 100kg
Women
Shushila 48kg, Suchika 57kg, Tulika +78kg
