Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], September 21 (ANI): Indian mixed martial arts (MMA) athlete Suchika Tariyal said she gave her best effort to change the colour of her medal but remained proud of winning a historic bronze at the Asian Games 2026.<\/p>\n
Suchika secured India’s first-ever MMA medal at the Asian Games after finishing third in the women’s traditional 60kg category. She lost to Singapore’s Teo Hui Hoon in the semifinal.<\/p>\n
“I tried my absolute best to change the colour of this medal. But due to certain circumstances, I couldn’t achieve that, or perhaps there was some minor shortcoming on my part. I feel the decision didn’t go in my favour, and I completely disagree with that verdict,” Suchika told ANI after winning the bronze medal.<\/p>\n
“Everyone who was there watched the bout and told me that I fought remarkably well. While I couldn’t change the colour of the medal, I am proud that I was able to win a place in the hearts of my countrymen,” she added.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the semifinal result, where the bout was decided after a tie-break based on body weight, Suchika said she was aware of the rules but felt the contest should have been decided on performance.<\/p>\n
“I am well aware of the rules\u2014that in a tie, the lighter athlete wins\u2014but a fight doesn’t get decided on that basis alone. If you watch the bout, I was clearly winning. I executed all the takedowns; she didn’t manage a single takedown on me, and she was merely throwing punches into the air,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It shouldn’t have come down to body weight at all, but they dragged it to body weight, stating she was lighter and therefore gave her the win. I had clearly won both rounds; the bout shouldn’t have even gone down to that margin. The decision went in her favour, and I am extremely upset about it. I completely disagree with the verdict,” Suchika added.<\/p>\n
The Indian athlete also credited her husband Kapil Hooda for supporting her career, saying his belief and sacrifices helped her continue competing after marriage.<\/p>\n
“Kapil (husband) had immense faith in me. He has put everything behind my career. Whenever I take unpaid leave to travel for training camps, he covers all my expenses. He takes out loans and doesn’t tell me, but I know how hard he works to manage things. My only wish now is that his loans get cleared! That\u2019s all, and I am happy,” she said.<\/p>\n
Suchika’s bronze medal marked a milestone for Indian MMA, which made its debut at the Asian Games 2026. (ANI)<\/p>\n
(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], September 21 (ANI): Indian mixed martial arts (MMA) athlete Suchika Tariyal said she gave her best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[53572,324080,64,63,118057,786,1209,468471,785,85,466635],"class_list":["post-900019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-asian-games","tag-asian-games-2026","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bronze-medal","tag-fighting","tag-india","tag-indian-athlete","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-suchika-tariyal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}