Source: Oken Jeet Sandham * / NEPS
Busan, (South Korea), October 01:
Indian Muaythai Team under the leadership of Oken Jeet Sandham has once again created history as 3 players---2 girls from Uttarakhand and 1 player from Manipur---could manage to win 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Medals in the Busan World Sports For All Games held from 26th September - 1st October, 2008 at Busan, South Korea.
2008 World Muaythai Championships is an Official Sports Program of Busan 2008 World Sports For All Games held from 26th Septmber to 1st October at Busan, South Korea.
G Marempu Kabui, only player from Manipur in the strong 9-Member Indian Muaythai Team, could win Bronze Medal after he bowed out to Jae-Dong Je of Korea in the 40 kg Junior Male in the Semi Final.
His fight with his counterpart from Korea had a huge audience as the latter happened to be from the host country, Korea.
Marempu had higher point in the first round but his Korean opponent dominated in remaining the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds.
He lost in points.
This is the 2nd time Marempu won Bornze Medals in the World Muaythai Championships.
He already won Bronze Medal in 2007 World Muaythai Championships held in Bangkok last year.
The only significance of this time is the 2008 World Muaythai Championships was an official program of Busan World Sports For All Games under the patronage of International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Deepti Pant from Uttarakhand is the 1st Indian Muaythai lady who won Silver Medal in the history of Indian Muaythai.
She fought against Amy Pimpie of Scotland in the 45 kg Junior Female in the Final and lost to her.
Another girl from Uttarakhand, Meenakshi Adhikari, also lost in Semi Final to Katsiaryna Iz of Belarus in the 51 kg Junior Female.
Other 3 Junior Male fighters are Anshuman Behera from Orissa, Vinod Kumar from Andhra Pradesh and Arun Kumar from Andha Pradesh.
They all lost in their first bouts.
The 9-Member Indian Muaythai Team was led by Oken Jeet Sandham, President of Muaythai Federation of India (MFI), Aneile Kenye of Nagaland was the only Referee from India while T Balraju as Coach.
L Thoiba Singh, Official of Indian Muaythai Team amd Suneel Mishra, player from Uttarakhand failed to participate as their VISAs were not agranted.
* The writer can be contacted at oken_jeet(at)yahoo(dot)com .