AR Bhat
Wushu is a full-fledged martial art with tough and soft techniques and is also a full-contact sport. It has a long history since 1949, created to standardize many martial arts styles, formalize training systems and to help develop a healthier form of self-defence. Wushu is practiced as a competitive sport in China today, where it is considered one of the country’s major cultural assets. Wushu is a Chinese martial art that was developed to incorporate many different styles. It features many traditional styles as well as modern compositions that reflect the changing times. Some of these styles are influenced by other cultures and martial arts such as Japan. Kashmir Golden Girl Saadia Tariq won the gold medal on 28 Feb and became the international champion in the final match of the Moscow Wushu Stars Championship held in Moscow, Russia from February 22 to 28. Sadia achieved this feat by defeating her Russian opponent. The last match of the ongoing championship. She had a total of three fights in the Championship and defeated her opponents from Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic and Russia. She is also a two-times gold medallist at the Junior National Wushu Championships. Prior to that, she was shortlisted by the Wushu Association of India, the technical committee for the Moscow Stars Wushu Championship. Sadia is the only Wushu player to compete in the Championship from J&K out of 38 players, including 23 junior and 15 senior Wushu players across India. Sadia Tariq, hails from Bemina, Srinagar, Kashmir and is currently a 10th class student at Presentation Convent School in Raj bagh, Srinagar.
She recently won a gold medal at the 20th Junior National Wushu Championship at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, with J&K’s Wushu team finishing third in the overall medal table. Kuldeep Hindu, India’s national head coach (Wushu), says Sadia had secured a berth for the NCOE to prepare for the Youth Asian Games to be held in China in December 2022. “The Sports Authority of India has approved the recommendations of the Wushu Association of India to nominate the best potential players for the Youth Asian Games at various National Centres of Excellence,” he said.
Saadia’s father Tariq Lone said that he was really proud of his daughter who had worked so hard since she started playing the game and achieved this feat at such a young age.
Taking the micro-blogging social media site Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeted, “Congratulations to Sadia Tariq on winning the Gold medal at the Moscow Wushu Stars Championship. Her success will inspire many budding athletes. Wishing her the very best for her future endeavours.”
Meanwhile in response to the PM,’s tweet, Sadia responded, “Sir, I want to sincerely thank you for congratulating me on my recent achievement. It’s a proud moment for our nation and i will definitely continue trying to make my India Proud..”
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