“Should I wear my blazer today?”
Angom Anita Chanu had a solitary question for her ward Inunganbi Takhellambam, before her bronze medal bout at the 2026 Asian Judo Championships earlier this month.
In judo, the coaches are required to wear business suits with a tie as they enter the arena for the final block matches or the medal matches. It is a major deviation from the early rounds, where they are allowed to enter wearing casual track-pants.
Chanu’s question was out of the blue. But then, an Indian in the bronze medal match of the Asian Judo Championships is too.
The last time an Indian medalled at the continental competition was 13 years ago, when Chanu herself returned with the gold medal in 2013. Takhellambam had no idea, and so it wasn’t a surprise when she was taken aback by the question.
“I asked her jokingly, ‘Don’t you trust me?,'” recalled Takhellambam. “I will give it my best shot.”
The 27-year-old Judoka did go all out in the contest against Mongolia’s Lkhagvadulam Sarantsetseg. She employed an ippon or the knockout move to clinch to win the women’s -70kg bronze medal.
“At first it was hard to believe that I won a medal,” said Takhellambam in a media interaction held by Sports Authority of India (SAI).
“It was only after coaches and other players came to meet me that I realised and started crying that I have won a medal for India after 13 years,” she added.
It won’t be until much later that Takhellambam would realise that coach Chanu was the last Indian to achieve the feat.
“I overheard other coaches tell her, ‘Anita (Chanu), you have given the medal back to India,'” she said.
“That’s when I got to know that she was the last Indian to do so. It made me really happy,” she added.
Early days
Takhellambam had just started out in judo back then. She wasn’t even in the age-group Manipur teams when Chanu stood on the podium.
Hailing from Tiger Camp in Imphal East, no one from her family had pursued sports professionally. She started by playing football near her house and was a cartwheel enthusiast.
Her father, who was a volleyball enthusiast, took her to SAI STC in Imphal to enroll her in boxing under the guidance of a friend, who was a coach at the centre.
But it wasn’t boxing, rather judo, which caught the fancy of a teenaged Takhellambam.
“When I arrived at SAI STC, I saw judo for the first time and liked it,” she said. “I saw seniors wearing white and black belts, rolling and doing cartwheels.
“Since I used to love cartwheeling in the fields back in my village, I thought this should be easy. I had no idea judo involved throws, locks, and chokes. Football was the only sport I knew then,” she added with a laugh.
Takhellambam moved to the National Sports Academy from there before finding her way to SAI Imphal. It would take her a few more years before she made it to the state team to compete at the national level.
“But once I made it, I never returned without a medal,” said Takhellambam proudly.
Career-threatening injuries
Takhellambam’s journey to the continental podium has been anything but easy. She suffered two career-threatening injuries – an ACL tear and then a meniscus tear on the same knee years later.
“I had to undergo an ACL surgery in 2018,” she said. “I was very young and didn’t know how to care for my body.
“It was tough, but thankfully, after a year of rehabilitation, I was able to qualify for the Asian Championships in 2019.
“Then in 2024, I tore my meniscus in the same knee. I was more mature by then and recovered after six months of intense rehabilitation. I didn’t practice judo during that period – just gym and physiotherapy,” she added.
On her return to judo in December 2024, Takhellambam won the national championships with just 15 days of practice.
She grew up idolising Tombi Devi and Chanu – the two judo icons to emerge from Manipur.
When Takhellambam stood on the podium in Ordos, China, with Chanu looking on in her blazer, the Indian judo fraternity prayed it to be the official passing of a baton. The next Asian Championships medal, hopefully, isn’t 13 years away.
Comments are closed.