Know Your Heroes | Latika Bhandari - Fighting her way to victory

08/15/2018

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SportsCafe

Like most other Indian female athletes, Latika Bhandari’s narrative is pretty similar – father enrolls the brother and sister in the same sport from where they emerge victorious to represent the country at international level. Cricketers Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj also followed a similar path.

However, what played out differently for Latika was the source of inspiration. Players like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, and Sachin Tendulkar have inspired an entire generation in their wake, leading many Indian kids to pick up the bat at a very young age. Showing the bat to the crowd after a century, the crowd cheering your name as you walk into the ground, we have all envisioned sometime like that in our lives. Hence, Mandhana, or Raj, or any women cricketer for that matter didn’t have to look far for the spark.

Competing in a sport like Taekwondo, which is pretty non-conventional in India with the masses hardly knowing the stalwarts of the game, made the vision a bit jaded for Latika until in 2002 when she saw her brother Surendra Bhandari winning the bronze medal in Bhutan Asian Games.

“So, we were watching the news in the morning and he was being received in Delhi and people were making him wear garlands and lifting him up. His news was running on the first page. I thought at that time, 'if him being a Bhandari can do it, why can't I?',” Latika told SportsCafe.

Latika’s father is a part of Assam military force, which meant that discipline had always ran in the family. Latika recalls how he always used to stress the importance of getting up in the morning and maintaining physical fitness on his children. The next step was obvious – to enroll them into something that could make the physical training more fun.

“He used to take my big brothers and me for physical workouts in the morning. There he saw the Taekwondo class, where my brother was made to join first. After a year or two, I too got enrolled in it. So, this was about Nainital, I originally hailed from Nainital. Then we shifted to Madhya Pradesh.”

However, Nainital was not where it all started professionally. Latika recalls how her mother kept her taekwondo training going after they moved to Madhya Pradesh. “It was like my mother used to send me in the evening for one hour to go spend in my Taekwondo class. At first, my brother had joined. His coach told us that there is training available for girls as well and they have efficient coaches. So, I started training after that.”

However, with Latika’s father away on duty, continuing her training and practice solely relied on her brother. And her determination didn’t deter even though she had taken up the sport as a 10-year-old.

“I used to tail after my brother when he used to go for practice. My dad was in the military force, so when I used to be alone, I would go after my brother. Then my brother went to SAI and he used to teach me some of the technicalities, when he used to come back home. Initially, I was in the basic course only, so he used to teach me some advance moves.”

Then one day, the hard work paid off as Latika won her first medal while studying in Class 10 in the school nationals. It was difficult to ignore her potential now and Latika also realized that if she was so good at it, she must take it to the next level.

“His (brother’s) coach told him that your sister is really good. He mentioned that if you want her to further excel in Taekwondo, you should send her to a hostel.”

Latika had a rapid rise at an early age. She had started beating her senior players for the national team very early and clinched the national gold medal when she was only sixteen. She recalls that when she had first represented India in Asiad, she hardly knew the significance of the event.

Latika has participated in 26 registered fights, winning 10 out of them with a rate of 38.5%. She has 203 hitpoints distributed and 189 collected during the fights. Among her notable achievements include, clinching the silver medal in Commonwealth Taekwondo Championship, which was in Canada in 2017, reaching the round of 16 in WTF World Taekwondo Championship, Korea in 2017 and more importantly, finishing fifth in 17th Asian Games, Incheon in 2014.

Latika has achieved quite a many things to be proud about and she is just 24-year-old, however, she is far from satiated. Her targets and challenges have also changed over the years. She always wanted to better her brother’s powerful kick when the used to fight each other. Now, she is eyeing a medal in the Asiad, where she will be fighting some of the best in the business.

People don't treat the athletes with as much respect as they deserve. After joining Gosports, I came to know how a player is respected.

Latika, on Indian sports culture

“We've been preparing for around one and a half… two years. There are a lot of expectations in that regard. As I've joined the Gosports, my coach and I have been working hard for the Asian Games and I wasn't able to clear the quarter-finals the last two times.”

She is no more the little girl that had bloomed very early in her career. She is very much of the knowledge that from here on, only regular and disciplined practice could take her forward. Though she doesn’t feel the tremendous pressure she once used to, she is fully aware of the expectations everyone has from her.

“At first, there used to be a lot of pressure. Now, I don't feel anything as such because I don't have anything to lose. I know this will be my last time as people start questioning why the old players are given chance repeatedly. I have already lost two times in the quarter-finals and I know my moral will be down, if I return again without a medal.”

But, she and her coach have been preparing for two and half years for the event and Latika sounded optimistic about her approach. “I hope I have a nice news to share with you after the Asian Games.”

However, one optimistic perspective of Latika’s career so far, has been the constant support from everyone around her all the time. While her seniors was always encouraging and insightful when she was growing up, it has now been the GoSports Foundation that has made her realize the respect every sportsperson should deserve for the work they are doing.

“As you know, there is a lot of politics surrounding the sports culture in our country. People don't treat the athletes with as much respect as they deserve. After joining Gosports, I came to know how a player is respected. We were made to travel by flights. When I used to call someone sir or mam they told me that it is us who have made our country proud, so we should refrain from calling them so. It feels like we have truly achieved something, that people are ready to do so much for us.”

Since clinching the bronze back in 2014 at the Asian Championships, Tashkent, she has added five more to her cabinet. She has won a bronze medal in 2016 Israel Open, silver medals in WTF Presidents Cup and Commonwealth Championships 2017 and in Malaysia Open earlier this year and gold in the 2018 Fujairah Open. She is going strong and we hope she extends it with another medal, hopefully a yellow one, in Jakarta.

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