New Delhi: After a historic high that saw two gold medals and a silver on Friday, Indian judokas were brought back to earth on the penultimate day of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Saturday, taking a solitary bronze after three of the judokas stumbled on the final step before a medal.
Unnati Sharma (-63kg) was India’s lone judo medallist of the day, beating South Africa’s Skye Knoester by ippon in the bronze medal playoff. She wrapped up the contest in one minute and 7 seconds with the bout-stopping manoeuvre.
She opened her campaign with a dominant Round of 16 victory over Eswatini’s Lamulela Magagula, sealing the contest by ippon in one minute and 39 seconds after scoring two successive waza-ari.
She then edged past New Zealand’s Qona Christie in the quarter-final, prevailing by waza-ari after also registering a yuko to book her place in the last four. In the last-four stage, Unnati went down by ippon to Australia’s Saya Middleton, the eventual silver medallist, in the semi-finals to drop into the bronze medal playoff.
This was India’s fourth judo medal at this Games after Asmita Dey (gold), Harsh Singh (gold) and Yamini Mourya (silver) had medalled on Friday.
However, there was disappointment for Takhellambam Inunganbi (women’s -70kg) and Karanjit Singh Maan (men’s -90kg), who lost in repechage rounds.
Inunganbi, who won a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in Ordos City, China in April to end India’s 13-year medal drought at the continental championships, was billed as a medal hope but lost her opening quarter-final bout to Canada’s Charlie Thibault in three minutes and 23 seconds after conceding a yuko earlier in the contest.
She faced England’s Jemima Yeats-Brown in the repechage but lost by ippon in 68 seconds.
Karanjit lost the men’s -90kg last-eight clash to Canada’s Guillaume Gaulin, conceding defeat by ippon after defeating New Zealand’s Elliott Connolly by ippon in three minutes and 29 seconds.
He later lost the repechage round to home favourite Scott Cusack.
In the final bout of the day, India’s Harsh Tokas narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the men’s -81kg judo, losing to Australia’s Keishin Ochi by ippon. The contest began cautiously, with both judokas receiving a Shido (penalty) for passivity within the opening 18 seconds.
Tokas picked up a second Shido midway through the match. With 43 seconds remaining, Ochi seized his opportunity, executing a quick throw that sent Harsh onto his back to score an ippon and seal the bronze.
