Coventry: Indian judokas L Shushila Devi and Vijay Kumar Yadav signed off with a silver and a bronze medal in women’s 48kg and men’s 60kg respectively at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) here Monday. The 27-year-old Shushila Devi fought hard before losing the final via ‘Waza-Ari’ in the 4.25-minute match against South Africa’s Michaela Whitebooi. Yadav on the other hand, dished out a dominating show to take down Petros Christodoulides of Cyprus with an ‘Ippon’ in the bronze medal match.
For Shushila, it was her second silver medal at the showpiece event. She had finished runners-up at the 2014 Glasgow Games as well. A sub-inspector with Manipur Police, Shushila had progressed to the final, beating Priscilla Morand of Mauritius. She had beaten Harriet Bonface of Malawi on way to her quarterfinals earlier in the day.
The 26-year-old Yadav, on the other hand, produced a superlative performance as he pounced on the mistake of his opponent and pinned him down for 10 seconds to end the contest in just 58 seconds. Ippon is a move in which a contestant throws his opponent to the mat with considerable force and speed so that the opponent lands on his back. An ippon is also awarded when a contestant immobilizes his opponent with a grappling hold-down for 20 seconds, or when an opponent gives up.
Yadav has won the Commonwealth Championships in 2018 and 2019. He had lost to Joshua Katz of Australia in the quarterfinal, but he produced a superb performance in 60kg repechage to advance to the bronze medal match with a win by ‘Waza Ari’ over Dylon Munro of Scotland.
A ‘waza-ari’ is awarded after a player throws his opponent with control and accuracy, but not to the extent of an ippon.