NAHARLAGUN, 7 May: The Arunachal Karate-Do Association (AKA) on Saturday felicitated the state’s medal-winning players and officials of the Khelo India University Games, which was held in Bengaluru, Karnataka, from 23 April to 3 May, in a function here on Saturday.
The karatekas, representing various universities, bagged 10 medals, including two gold medals, in the Games.
While Yame Gadi, representing Rajiv Gandhi University, won a gold medal in the individual kumite (fight) in the female category, Mesom Singhi, representing Lovely Professional University, bagged the second gold in the female kata event.
Kyabo Liyang from Himalayan University won a silver medal in the men’s below 50 kg individual kumite. Agung Pafa and Lokam Maya from the same university won a bronze medal each in the men’s 80 kg and above and the women’s below 60 kg category, respectively, in the individual kumite events.
Yaki Dignium and Sanjay Gamnu from RGU bagged a bronze medal each in individual kumite in the women’s below 68 kg and men’s below 50 kg category, respectively.
The trio of Karsang Yanga, Yaki Dignium and Reyum Haji from RGU won the female team kata bronze medal.
Abab Sangdo and Yana Bagang from Arunodaya University won a silver medal each in the male individual kata and the female individual kumite in the below 50 kg category.
AKA president Likha Tara and Himalayan University registrar Dr Sanjeev Shrivastava presented khadas to the medal winners and the officials.
“You have not only brought laurels to the universities you represented, but also the entire state,” Tara said, addressing the winners.
Stating that the achievements are the results of years of hard work and dedication by both the players and the AKA, Tara advised them to continue to practice hard to achieve more success in the future.
The AKA president also urged the universities to extend support to the players.
Tara, meanwhile, requested the state government to give priority to state and national championships and the National Games only.
“Lot of money is being wasted in conducting memorial tournaments in the state,” he said, opposing such tournaments.
Reiterating the demand for a multipurpose indoor hall in Itanagar, Tara said that the proposed infrastructure continues to elude the sports fraternity of the state.
Dr Shrivastava also motivated the players and said that the university would felicitate its medal-winning players very soon.
DSP Bulang Marik, who had attended the Games as karate referee, said that “the state could qualify for the Games in the karate discipline only, out of the 20 sporting disciplines.”
Marik, who is the only AKF qualified Grade A judge from the Northeast, said that a total of 189 universities participated in the Games.
RGU was ranked 60th, the Himalayan University 87th and Arunodaya 112th, whereas Assam’s Dibrugarh University and Gauhati University were ranked 97th and 124th, respectively, Marik said.
Tatung Raju was the team manager, while Tadang Minu and Prakash Limbu were the manager and coach, respectively, of the RGU team. Rakesh Gamnu and Tachi Bagang were the coaches of Arunodaya and Himalaya University, respectively.
AKA general secretary Tai Hipik, AKA technical director Dr Marli Ette, and AKA technical chairman SD Sharma attended the function, which was held at the association’s headquarters here.
