Inunganbi Takhellambam had to endure trips that often stretched to three days without reservations when she competed in national age-group competitions more than a decade ago.Hailing from Manipur, Inunganbi and other judokas from the state would first travel to Dimapur in Nagaland and then take a train to Kolkata. After transferring there, they continued to their destination – be it Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh or somewhere in the south – a journey that often took several more days.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!“Sometimes we would sit on the floor next to the washrooms for two or three days while traveling. Despite the tough journeys and competing without a coach, I always managed to bring home a medal – and the feeling was as good as winning a gold medal,” Inunganbi said during an interaction with TOI.These experiences proved enough motivation for her to keep pushing and last month she became the first Indian woman in 13 years to win a medal at the Asian Judo Championships, bagging a bronze in Ordos City, China.In the bronze medal match, Inunganbi defeated Mongolia’s Lkhagvadulam Sarantsetseg and one of the first to congratulate her was Angom Anita Chanu, who won bronze in the women’s 52kg category at the 2013 Asian Championships.Although it was not Inunganbi’s first international medal, she now has her sights firmly set on qualifying for the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. However, her first coach Deven Moirangthem wants her to aim for nothing less than an Olympic medal.“When she first came to me in 2008, I was very impressed by her fearless attitude. She also had a slim figure that suited judo,” said Moirangthem, a close friend of her father, who gave her initial training at the Khuman Lampak Sports Complex in Imphal.She moved to the National Sports Academy within a year and joined the Sports Authority of India (SAI) center in 2014, after which she started competing regularly at the national level.In 2017, she earned her first call-up to India when she was selected for the Asian Junior Judo Championships, marking her entry into international competition. In the same year, she joined the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS).But a year later she suffered a major setback after injuring her left knee, leaving her bedridden for months. “In 2018, I was physically very weak and I was not familiar with training in the gym, so the rehabilitation took longer,” said the 27-year-old.But she came back stronger to claim her first senior gold in 2022 and while national medals followed, an international title proved elusive until 2025 when she secured gold at the Amman Asian Open.Much of this progress came with the support system on IIS. “Even before coming here I represented India at the international level, but here I really understood what elite preparation means,” said Inunganbi, who currently trains under Baye Diawara in Bellary.Apart from the IIS coaches and support staff, she also draws strong support from her parents and her husband, Olympic boxer Ashish Kumar Chaudhary, which will hopefully be enough to propel her to the top in the coming days.
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