Asian Games: Roshibina Devi wins silver in women’s 60kg wushu

Nagoya, Sep 24 (IANS) India’s Roshibina Devi concluded her Asian Games 2026 campaign with a silver medal after losing to China’s Xiaoyu Zhang in the Wushu women’s 60kg final on Thursday.

This was Roshibina’s third Asian Games medal. She had earlier won a bronze in 2018 and a silver in 2023. Overall, this is India’s 11th medal in Wushu at the Asian Games — one gold, two silver and eight bronze.

India have won 14 medals so far; one gold, six silver and seven bronze.

She earlier defeated Macao’s Chu Man Sin 5-0 in the quarterfinals to assure herself of a medal. She then prevailed 2-0 against Indonesia’s Thania Kusumaningtyas to progress to the final, but eventually succumbed 0-2 to China’s Zhang in the gold-medal bout.

Roshibina comes from a farming family in Kwasiphai, Bishnupur district, Manipur. She trains in the Women’s Sanda 60kg category at SAI NCOE Imphal under coach Maibam Premkumar Singh and is one of India’s most decorated wushu athletes.

She won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and upgraded it to silver at the 2023 (19th) Asian Games in Hangzhou, becoming only the second Indian to win a Wushu silver medal at the Asian Games.

Her achievements have been recognised with the Arjuna Award, India’s second-highest sporting honour, and the International Wushu Federation’s Female Wushu Athlete of the Year (Sanda) title.

Roshibina had lost to Divyanshi Choudhary in the trials and missed the cut for India’s seven-member Wushu squad approved by the Sports Ministry in August. But she got a place in the Indian team after Divyanshi was ruled out due to injury.

Divyanshi, though, alleged foul play and said she was fully fit, also accusing the federation of favouring Roshibina, who had initially finished fourth in the trials.

–IANS

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