Who is Vijay Kumar Yadav?

Indian judoka Vijay Kumar Yadav on Monday won a bronze medal in the men’s 60kg at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. 

Yadav defeated Petros Christodoulides of Cyprus by ‘Ippon’ in just 58 seconds. Ippon is the highest score in judo where the winner executes a full throw to immobilise his opponent.

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But Yadav was not satisfied with his bronze.

“I’m not at all satisfied, I expected a gold. But that’s okay. I had some drawbacks like I’ve to improve on my ground work which cost me a gold today,” he said.

“Vijay Kumar Yadav has won a Bronze medal in Judo at the CWG and made the nation proud. His success augurs well for the future of sports in India. May he continue to scale new heights of success in the times to come,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the judoka. 

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“Congratulations to Vijay Kumar Yadav on winning a Bronze medal in Judo at Commonwealth Games 22. We are proud of #VijayKumarYadav,” Kiren Rijiju tweeted. 

Indian sports minister Anurag Thakur congratulated both Shushila Devi and Yadav. The former won a silver in the 48kg women’s category. 

“I am happy to note that we have done well in Judo at CWG2022. While Shushila Devi has won a silver, Vijay Kumar Yadav has added to the tally with a bronze, his first medal at CWG, with a 10-0 win over Cyprus’ Petros C. I congratulate both of them!! #Cheer4India,” Thakur said on Twitter. 

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Who is Vijay Kumar Yadav?

Vijay Kumar Yadav is a 26-year-old judoka. He won the Commonwealth Championships in 2018 and 2019. This year, he needed repechage to advance to the bronze medal match with a win by ‘Waza Ari’ over Dylon Munro of Scotland.

Yadav had won the bronze medal at the Asian Open in Hong Kong in 2018. The 26-year-old was honoured with the Lakshman state award in 2019. As cadet he took medals at Asian Cadet Championships and as senior he was fifth in 2017.