New Delhi, Jun 22 (UNI) Asian Taekwondo Championships 2024 bronze medallist Rodali Barua said on Sunday that the popularity of martial arts is growing fast in India and the talented sportspersons were benefitting from the improved facilities, thanks to the support extended by the governments, mainly in the north eastern states.
In an exclusive chat with UNI, Rodali appeared upbeat about the growth of martial arts. "Television viewership of martial arts has risen as tournaments like Olympics, Asian Games and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) are keenly followed. Right now my discipline Taekwondo is getting so much limelight, earlier most people were not even familiar with the name. Not merely as a sport, martial arts. especially Taekwondo, is very useful for the sake of self-defence, especially for girls" she said.
Rodali also believes that sports in the north eastern states of India is booming and the region will produce a lot of quality sports persons for the nation. "The north east region has a lot of sporting talent, earlier paucity of facilities hindered the growth of sports, but now the Assam government, and other states governments are supporting sports and a lot of talent is coming up."
The Tezpur native revealed that she initially took up the sport as a means to escape studies but later got very serious about it. "I was not very interested in academies, to avoid studies I opted for sports, my physique was conducive for combat sports, Taekwondo gave me an option to bunk my classes, as I started doing well in competitions and subsequently I was selected in SAI center of Guwahati, I haven't looked back since."
She advised aspiring taekwondoins to make hard work their talisman and never give up.
"Continue training diligently and never give up, hard work is the most important thing, as the saying goes hard work trumps talent," said Barua.
Regarding her future tournaments, Barua said she is currently preparing for the Open ranking tournaments which will serve as a preparation for Asian Games. After that she will start preparations for the World Championships. UNI RKM SSP