By Firstdespatch Desk Apr 29, 2023
Agartala, Apr 29 (FD) Adding another feather to the cap of Tripura’s sports arena, 20-year-old Asmita Dey has won the silver medal in Asian open championship (senior) being held at Kuwait City.
She won the silver medal in the women's 48-kg category at the Championship on Friday. Asmita defeated Juhee Yu of Korea in a nail biting final match that ran for over 14 minutes.
Judokas from 27 other Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea and India took part in the championship being held at Kuwait City.
The two-day long competition in both male and female categories was started on April 28 last.
Apart from Asmita, another female player of the Indian team, Swaita secured a bronze medal in the same category.
Earlier, Asmita secured her first international medal (Bronze medal) in Asian Cadet and Junior Judo Championship held at Bangkok in Thailand in July last year.
Besides, Asmira won a gold medal in All India Inter University Judo Championship-2023.
Moreover, she won a gold medal in the All-India Khelo India Judo competition for Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal University.
Asmita is the first Judo player from Tripura who selected for Indian team. She is a former talented student of Tripura Sports School. Asmita’s first guru in sports was Bina Debnath of Belonia Vidyapith Coaching Centre in South Tripura District followed by Judo coach Manik Lal Deb of Tripura Sports School.
Meanwhile in February last she appealed for financial support from the state to participate in the Tashkent Grand Slam, which could have helped her to improve her current ranking and that help her to be eligible for the 2028 Olympics.
However, she could not able to participate now in the Tashkent competition held in March last due fund crunch despite her appeal for help from her state, Asmita said.
As per her coach- Yashpal Solanki, Asmiat is very talented and ready to compete with the best in the world.
He is hopeful that she can clinch an Olympic medal for India in 2028 Olympics.
Asmita who made the state proud hailed from a poor family in Belonia where her father runs a bicycle repairing shop and her mother is a housewife.
Her parents -father Arjun Kumar and mother Munna Devi – supported her overwhelmingly and are doing everything for their daughter without being bogged down by financial constraints. PD FD