Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 28: Three deaf Judokas of Jammu & Kashmir have been selected in the Indian team for 24th Deaflympics scheduled to be held at Brazil from May 1.
The selected Indian team has eight Judokas. All three selected Judokas of J&K are the alumni of the School for Speech and Hearing Handicapped, Jammu being run by a well-known NGO, J&K Samaj Kalyan Kendra, Jammu. The three J&K Judokas selected for Indian team are Rakhshinda Mehak for under-78 kg category, Vishal Khajuria for under -60 kg category and Rakesh Singh for under-66kg category.
The first two Judokas had participated in the World Deaf Judo Championship held in Paris in November 2021 as member of Indian Squad and Judoka Mehak had bagged bronze medal in team category for India.
Their selection was made at Selection Trial conducted by All India Sports Council of Deaf in collaboration with Sports Council of India at Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi. In all, 60 Judokas, 32 boys & 28 girls, from different states who had won medals in the past national & International events were called for the Selection Trial and eight of them, four each of boys & girls were selected for the major sports event at Brazil. Six Judokas from J&K attended this Selection Trial at Delhi.
The Senior Coach of the J&K Sports Council, Suraj Bhan Singh, under whose supervision J&K deaf & dumb Judokas have been trained for many years at M A Stadium, was a member of the national selection team. He was the head coach for the Indian Deaf Team that participated in World Deaf Judo Championship, Paris. The J&K team was sponsored by All J&K Sports Association of Deaf.
The president of J&K Samaj Kalyan Kendra, K B Jandial and all members of SKK family have expressed happiness over the selection of its three alumni in Indian team for Deaflympics and hoped that they would return from Brazil with medals.
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