Indian wushu athlete Roshibina Devi added another Asian Games medal to her record on Thursday, winning silver in the women’s 60kg sanda category at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Roshibina Devi wins silver in the women’s 60kg sanda event at the Asian Games 2026, becoming the first Indian wushu athlete to win medals at three successive editions.
Who is Roshibina Devi?
Roshibina Devi was born on 30 December 2000 in Kwasiphai Mayai Leikai in Manipur’s Bishnupur district.
She competes in sanda, the combat discipline of wushu that combines striking and throwing techniques.
Roshibina comes from a farming family. Her father, Naorem Damu, is a farmer, while her mother, Naorem Romila, helps with agricultural work. She has an elder sister and a younger brother.
She started training in wushu in 2012 after joining a Sports Authority of India centre. She initially tried boxing but became interested in wushu after watching the sport at a district-level competition.
Her early international breakthrough came at the 2016 World Junior Wushu Championships in Burgas, Bulgaria, where she won bronze in the 48kg category.
Roshibina’s Asian Games journey
Roshibina made her Asian Games debut at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.
Competing in the women’s 60kg sanda category, she defeated Pakistan’s Mubashra Akhtar in the quarterfinals before losing to China’s Cai Yingying in the semifinals. She finished with a bronze medal.
Five years later, she reached the final of the same category at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. She won silver after losing the title bout to China’s Wu Xiaowei.
Her latest medal in Nagoya now gives her three consecutive Asian Games podium finishes.
What happened in the 2026 final?
Roshibina reached the 2026 final after a strong run through the competition.
She defeated Bangladesh’s Shika Khatun in the pre-quarterfinals before beating Macao’s Chu Man Sin 5-0 in the quarterfinal.
In the semifinal, she defeated Indonesia’s Thania Kusumaningtyas 2-0 to book her place in the gold-medal bout.
The final, however, went China’s way.
Roshibina lost 0-2 to China’s Zhang Xiaoyu, who won both rounds 5-0.
The result gave Roshibina another silver medal and extended her record of consecutive Asian Games medals.
A three-game medal streak
Roshibina’s Asian Games record now reads:
2018 Jakarta-Palembang: Bronze, women’s 60kg sanda
2023 Hangzhou: Silver, women’s 60kg sanda
2026 Aichi-Nagoya: Silver, women’s 60kg sanda
She has therefore become the first Indian wushu athlete to win medals at three successive Asian Games editions.
Other major achievements
Roshibina also won gold in the 60kg category at the 2019 South Asian Games in Kathmandu-Pokhara.
In 2023, she won silver at the World Wushu Championships in Texas and gold at the Moscow Wushu Stars Championship.
Her performances that year contributed to her receiving the Arjuna Award.
Why was her 2026 selection in the news?
Roshibina’s inclusion in India’s 2026 Asian Games squad followed an injury to originally selected athlete Divyanshi Choudhary.
The selection subsequently became controversial after Choudhary made allegations of mental and physical harassment against Roshibina at a wushu camp in Patiala. Those allegations were publicly made by Choudhary and should be treated as allegations rather than established findings.
Roshibina continued with the Indian team after the Wushu Association of India and Sports Authority of India backed her selection, according to reports.
What does the latest medal mean?
The silver in Nagoya adds another major international result to Roshibina’s career and extends her Asian Games medal streak to three editions.
Her latest campaign also included victories over athletes from Bangladesh, Macao and Indonesia before she faced China’s Zhang Xiaoyu in the final.
While she missed out on gold, the result places Roshibina among India’s most consistent Asian Games performers in wushu, with a medal at every Games she has contested since her debut in 2018.