New Delhi: It’s not uncommon for a budding athlete in Manipur to be besotted by football, so when a teenaged Takhellambam Inunganbi in Imphal East’s Tiger Camp village found herself gravitating towards the beautiful game, it shouldn’t have caused second thoughts. Except, her father, a university-level footballer in his younger years, had other ideas.
“He reckoned I was quite fearless, and was maybe better suited to a combat sport,” Inunganbi recalled. And so began her journey in judo, almost on her dad’s whim.
“Mary Kom didi was big back home, as was Kunjarani Devi, so besides football, I knew only about boxing and weightlifting. Judo was a happy accident,” Inunganbi recalled in a virtual interaction facilitated by SAI on Wednesday.
What’s no accident was her pathbreaking, drought-ending win in China’s Ordos City earlier this month. The 27-year-old beat Mongolia’s Lkhagvadulam Sarantsetseg by ippon in the bronze medal match to end India’s 13-year medal drought at the continental championships.
A 2025 gold medallist at the Amman Asian Open and the reigning national champion, Inunganbi had earlier lost to Shirinjon Yuldoshova of Uzbekistan, the eventual silver medallist, in the quarter-finals but was handed a lifeline through the repechage route. Inunganbi beat Alina Moldokulova of Kyrgyzstan to earn a shot at a medal.
“To be honest, I didn’t know I had pulled off something special. It was only after the coaches hugged me and started crying that I realised the magnitude of my medal,” she said.
Inunganbi’s judo journey began about 15 years ago at the state-run National Sports Academy in Imphal. Accompanied by her father and still figuring out which combat sport to pursue, she noticed a few judokas warming up on the mat.
“Some of them wore black belts, some donned white belts. I saw them roll and cart-wheel, and I was hooked. I was already rolling and cartwheeling in the fields, so it appeared a little easy.”
Four years later, she moved to SAI Training Centre (STC) in Imphal and two years on, broke into the Indian age-group team. In 2017, she joined the Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) in Bellary and by the time the year ended, Inunganbi had already made her India debut.
In 2018, she suffered her first major setback when she injured her knee at the national camp ahead of that year’s Asian Championships. The ACL tear required surgery, but a poorly-managed rehab meant she was out of action for a year. She had a meniscus injury on the same knee in 2024 but returned in six months.
“Earlier, I didn’t even know the correct form to exercise in gym. I was pencil-thin, and my return took longer than it should have,” Inunganbi remembered.
She transitioned into the senior group in 2021 and began competing in the 70kg class, more out of compulsion than choice.
With a maintenance weight of 66-67kg and little know-how on the science of cutting weight, she moved up a category where she would be up against judokas with a much higher maintenance weight (72-73kgs).
“I was at a distinct disadvantage in terms of strength. I didn’t know how to lose weight the right way and I didn’t have the power to effect throws.” And so, she decided to up her ground game, to an extent where she could “finish anyone on technicality.”
“Standing fight is pure strength but ground is a little technical. You can tackle, hold or choke, whereas in standing you can just throw. I have beaten physically stronger opponents in India with my ground game and I used it to good effect at the Asian Championships as well.”
“I have had a number of early losses in my international career, so the belief, to be honest, was not really there. But once my game started coming together, I grew in confidence.”
Not surprisingly, Inunganbi is dreaming of medals at this year’s Commonwealth and Asian Games. While the continental Games will be seriously tough — the last of India’s five judo medals came in 1994 — CWG is where she might have a chance.
“My father is happy, the village is happy. I am happy that they finally know what I do,” she giggled.
