India, April 29 -- It's not uncommon for a budding athlete in Manipur to be besotted by football, so when a teenaged Takhellambam Inunganbi in Imphal East's Tiger Camp village found herself gravitating towards the beautiful game, it shouldn't have caused second thoughts. Except, her father, a university-level footballer in his younger years, had other ideas.

"He reckoned I was quite fearless, and was maybe better suited to a combat sport," Inunganbi recalled. And so began her journey in judo, almost on her dad's whim.

"Mary Kom didi was big back home, as was Kunjarani Devi, so besides football, I knew only about boxing and weightlifting. Judo was a happy accident," Inunganbi recalled in a virtual interaction facilitated by SAI on Wednes...