Rodali Barua ends India's 10-year medal drought at Asian Taekwondo Championships, clinches bronze in women's 73kgs

Rodali Barua also won the India Open in 2019.

India’s Rodali Barua won a bronze medal in the women’s 73kgs category at the Asian Taekwondo Championship 2024 on Friday, May 17.

Rodali Barua became the first Indian to win a medal at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Kyorugi after Latika Bhandari bagged a bronze medal. The continental championship takes place every two years, and the first edition of the Asian competition was played in Seoul, South Korea.

Rodali Barua defeated Uzbekistan’s Iroda Mirtadjieva in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Asian Championships before suffering a loss against China’s Xu Lei in the last four. Lei was the top seed at the tournament.

Barua has also proved her prowess in the nation as well as the subcontinent, as she has won gold medals at the India Open (2019), the President’s Cup Asia (2018) and the El Hassan Open (2018).

On May 15, India’s Rupa Bayor won a historic bronze medal in Vietnam in Poomsae. However, Poomsae is not a part of the Olympics. Only Kyorugi is contested at the Olympic Games.

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In simple terms, Kyorugi involves sparring, while poomsae is a series of movements in which a practitioner perfects their technique against an imaginary opponent. The Asian Poomsae Championship was held from May 14 to May 15 in Da Nang, Vietnam.

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Interestingly, Nepal have been more successful at the tournament than India, as they also hosted the event in 1988. During the tournament, Nepal bagged a silver and six bronze medals.

At the Asian Games, Surendra Bhandari was the first Indian to win a medal. Bhandari reached the milestone during the 2002 Busan Asian Games, while he was only 17-years-old at the time.

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