Takhellambam Inunganbi has won the World Junior Judo title in 2025-26 and she is the first Indian judoka to win a World Grand Slam medal in 13 years at the Asian Judo Championships. Now she is going to try and win this medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and she is going to win the gold again.
Inunganbi's extensive rehabilitation and return-to-sport programme was enabled by a high-performance training environment situated at Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS). After knee surgery in June 2024 she got quality coaching, strength and conditioning training, physiotherapy, advanced recovery techniques, sports science and nutrition planning for this all and on and on. Inunganbi is thankful for this and the fact that she got the ultimate support system and coaches in both professional and personal aspects that took her to the next level and let her focus on sports.
The most landmark moment of her revival was earlier this year in Ordos when she achieved a historic bronze medal at the Asian Judo Championships and ended a long-standing podium drought for India at the continental tournament since 2013. For Inunganbi that was a real sign, a real demonstration of the power of long-term work such as rehabilitation that yields big dividends. Her personal coach at the Inspire Institute of Sport, Baye Diawara, said she was very committed and that to overcome multiple severe joint injuries in order to reach the top level of the sport required a lot of psychological strength and determination.
With her eyes set on the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and her own aspirations now on the horizon, Inunganbi is doing her best to make incremental progress and not to focus on the end game. Representing the nation remains her most cherished responsibility and she is going to go into this competition with a new outlook and she’ll be out there and do her best at the end of the day to continue inspiring a new generation of martial artists in all parts of the world.
