Pincky Balhara won India’s highest Asian Games medal – a silver – in kurash, a relatively lesser-known martial art form (a traditional martial art from Uzbekistan that resembles wrestling).
Along with Malaprabha Jadhav, who won bronze, Pincky stood on the podium at Jakarta as the country’s first medal winners in a sport that made its debut in the ongoing Asian Games.
This accomplishment of the 19-year-old comes just three months after the deaths of her three family members – including her father.
“That was the worst phase of my life. I lost my cousin brother first, then my father to a heart attack and then my grandfather a month later. It just happened so quickly,” Pincky was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Pincky, hailing from Delhi, is a two-time national silver medallist and one of India’s most promising judokas. In this year’s Junior Asian Championships, she won a gold medal in the women’s 52kg category.
The teenager, however, narrowly missed out on being a part of India’s judo contingent to Jakarta.
This year’s judo senior nationals was to be held within 10 days of her father’s passing away and, according to the Times of India report, she had just five days to prepare for it.
Nevertheless, the teenager managed to win a bronze medal there. A few days later, she took part in the junior nationals – that coincided with her grandfather’s passing away (she, however, got the news after the event ended) – and won gold.