northeast: Commonwealth Games 2022: Northeast takes centre stage

This is no longer a deviation. Rather, it is ideal. Four of India’s first eight medals have come from athletes from the Northeast and this is a testament to the region’s importance from the point of view of Indian sports.

The Northeast and sports have always gone hand in hand. While Dingko Singh and Kunjarani Devi were the flag bearers in the 1990s, they were followed by Mary Kom, Sarita Devi and Lovlina Borgohain in boxing, Mirabai Chanu, Bindyarani Devi and Jeremy Lalrinnuga in weightlifting, and Sushila Devi in ​​judo.

“I grew up in the middle of physical activity,” Jeremy, whose father was a national-level boxer, said. “When I did well in the Youth Olympics, the dream got bigger. That I also have to do at the senior level. Seeing Mirabai (Chanu) doing this in Tokyo made us all believe that we can do it on the biggest scale.

For Bindyarani, whose father runs a small grocery store and brother is still unemployed, sport is a means to support the family. “We did not have a cable connection at home. On the day of my competition, the connection was finally taken and my father closed his grocery store to watch my show in the evening. Medal means a lot to me and it will help me to do something for my family.

While facilities in the Northeast have gotten much better over the past decade, exceptional performances at big events make a real difference. When Lovlina won the medal in Tokyo, a proper road to her house was literally built overnight. Dignitaries from all over the region wanted to meet him, his village got a new look.

Mirabai helped put things in perspective, “Things are not easy. In the Northeast, sports are an opportunity for families to make a difference and have a better life. It is a lifeline. Today the whole of India has showered their love on me. Think about what will happen to the kids in the area and how much they’ll want to play. It’s a chain reaction and I don’t think there’s any stopping it now.”

At a time when we talk of mental strength as the key to success in sport, it is something that happens to most of these athletes. For Bindyarani, it was a make of brake lift in his final attempt at clean and jerk.

She had failed to lift 114 kg and went on to win the silver medal at 116. It takes a lot of courage and self-confidence to be able to overcome this and that comes from facing adversity. “Right said. It’s about a burning desire to do good for your country. To show the world what we can do. Sport is about respect. It gives us the respect we deserve. So you know how important this is to us,” Jeremy said.

Originally published at Pen 18