Sporting powerhouse

Vinayak Padmadeo

Lalremsiami got emotional when she saw more than 1,000-strong crowd out to welcome her at a ceremony in her native town, Kolasib, 80 km from Aizawl, Mizoram’s capital city. The 18-year-old forward of the Indian hockey team was being felicitated for winning a silver at the Asian Games. She topped it with another silver medal in Hockey 5s at the Youth Olympics. As the ceremony was special and her feat rare, the Mizos accorded her their highest honour. She was seated in an open bamboo palanquin in Kolasib’s jam-packed Dakkawn square in a procession where fellow Mizos chanted her name amid drumbeats.

The daughter of farmer Lalthansanga and homemaker Lazarmawli, she joined the state government-run academy in Thenzawl in Serchhip with limited facilities and rose to join the National Hockey Academy in New Delhi. She became the toast of the state.

More than 500 km north, in Guwahati, Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was at a large gathering at the airport to welcome the reigning junior world champion in 400 m and 4x400 gold medallist Hima Das. Like Lalremsiami, Hima Das (18), too, rose from a humble upbringing that her farmer father Ronjit could provide her in Dhing. Her rapid rise saw her getting exclusive footwear contract with sports apparel major Adidas. She also came on the cover of Vogue India magazine as one of the opinion makers of the year.

The story throughout the Northeast is similar. Weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga (16), who won the first-ever gold medal for India at the Youth Olympics, too, started off with limited resources but went on to taste success. Sports also brought him early recognition as he was snapped up by the Army Sports Institute, Pune, in 2014.

India’s first and only world champion in boxing, Mangte Mary Kom, too, came from the Northeast. The current World Champion and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna winner Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is also from this part of the woods.

Hard grind

The athletes today get the best of the facilities. Things, however, weren’t like this a decade or so, says Mary Kom, who had to earn all of it with hard work and toil. “Women’s boxing wasn’t even part of national championships in 2000 when I started. We had only heard that it would be included,” Mary recalled her early days, adding, “We travelled either by bus or in train’s sleeper class, at times even on our own. Those days camps were being held in Hisar. We had to make do with a ceiling fan even during peak summers. I hated the weather but had no choice but to fight it out,” she said.

Things, however, changed after she won the 2006 World Championships in New Delhi, which was her third successive world crown on the bounce. “We were flooded with phone calls and visitors at government quarters in Imphal and many parents requested us to train their children,” Onler, Mary’s husband, said.

It all started with sharing two rooms of her official residence in Langol, Imphal, with 15 women boxers in 2006. Her dream to train other boxers has now turned into a full-fledged academy that houses 96 trainees under the aegis of Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation. It recently inaugurated an outdoor ring and a plush new gym. “The academy trainees were super happy to have the ring. It was as if they had just been released from prison,” Onler said.

Recalling her days of struggle, Mary said, “I only had one training kit, one set of gloves and a pair of shoes. We bought  old and used equipment in the Imphal SAI centre. Youngsters today are lucky to be getting such high quality stuff. I often tell them they have nothing to worry but work hard in training because the rest of it — the kitting, education and nutrition — will be taken care of at the academy. But if they can’t focus on the one thing that they are supposed to do, then nobody, not even God, can help them,” she warns the trainees.

A family tradition   

Sports has received a major boost in the last decade in the region. According to Mary Kom, sports is an outlet for many in the Northeast, who cannot afford expensive education. “Also we in the Northeast are happy to let at least one child from the family to actively pursue sports. If you do well in sports here, you can get employment in one of the state departments within three to four years, else it takes a lot of time and money for a person to become eligible for a job,” she said.

According to a conservative estimate, more than 4,000 boys and girls are currently being trained at the Sports Authority of India facilities around Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura. There are nearly 100 small academies that have become supply chains for the state and SAI training centres. Importantly, girls are a third of the  total trainees.

This thought resonates with Navin Agarwal, director-general of the National Anti-Doping Agency. Navin was made interim Vice-Chancellor of the National Sports University (NSU), which has been set up in Imphal, Manipur.

“Manipur was the right choice for the NSU as it has a sports culture. Recently, big names in sports have come from the Northeast. When the university starts to operate at its optimum, it will be central to government’s ‘Look East’ policy as it can house trainees from our neighbouring countries,” said Agarwal. The facility is currently being run from its temporary campus at Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal.

Opening many doors

Tripura’s very own star, Dipa Karmakar (25) fuelled a lot of interest in the state after she finished fourth at the Rio Olympic Games. The state government has sanctioned an upgrade of Rs 50 lakh worth of equipment. 

“Success breeds success. Everyone wants to emulate her. On her request, the state government has sanctioned the amount so that other trainees in Agartala get the best. We have to keep looking for new talent. And believe me, there is abundance here,” her coach and mentor Bishweshwar Nandi said.

Mary Kom Junior

The Mary Kom Regional Boxing Academy has now been put on the world map by one of its trainees. Tingmila Doungel won a gold medal in the 48 kg weight division last month at the 13th Silesian Boxing Championship in Gliwice, Poland. Tingmila picked up the sport after watching Mary Kom’s biopic. “She won gold in the junior category while I won gold in the seniors. It was a strange feeling for me. I was the happiest as it tells me we are on the right track,” Mary said of her promising ward.

Before winning in Poland, Tingmila had won silver at both the National Inter School Competition as well as in Khelo India Games.