Malaprabha Yallappa Jadhav won bronze medal in Kurash at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta Palembang, Indonesia in 2018. Kurash is a form of martial arts and is a popular sport in Central Asia but almost unheard of in India. However beating all odds and fighting with true spirit of sportsmanship, Malaprabha secured the Bronze medal in Kurash after losing to Uzbekistan’s Sulymanova in the semi-finals.
Malaprabha was inclined to sports at an early age. She was being trained to be a Judo player at the Belgavi Sports Hostel until coaches MN Triveni and Jitendra Singh spotted her talent. They realised that she could be groomed into a Kurash player and took her to the National Sports Academy at Noida for training. In the final rounds of preparation she was also sent to Uzbekistan for higher training and finally selected to participate in the under 52 kg category.
Born to a farmer, Yallappa Jadhav from a small village Turmuri from Belgaum district, Malaprabha has fought against all odds to achieve success as a sportsman. Despite facing a severe financial crunch, coach Jitendra Singh is leaving no stone unturned to rare this budding sports talent.
Malaprabha has also won silver medal at the Indo Asian Games held at Kyrgyzstan and bronze in the Asian Championships held in Pune.
In recognition to her success the Government of Karnataka has awarded her the ‘Ekalavya’ award and the Karnataka Olympic Association Award.
We are hopeful that Malaprabha will bring many more laurels to make the country proud.
PC: thebelgaumnews.com
