Bringing laurels to his village through karate

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 16

He is confident, dreamer and now an achiever. Sukhbir Singh, 24, who hails from a small nondescript village Lahot of Nawanshahr, has now made his village’s name famous in the world by winning the 11th world martial arts game that was held in the USA.

A karate champion who won a gold medal in the championship, Singh was accorded a warm welcome on Friday by residents of Nawanshahr.

The 11th World Martial Arts Championship was held from September 7-10 and Singh landed here in his home town on Friday. Son of a farmer, Singh developed an inclination towards karate which, he said, was a completely different game from kabaddi.

“I had started with kabaddi in the school, but the year 2011 changed my life completely as I met my first ‘Guru’ Ram Kumar who would teach karate to some of the students and on seeing him, I developed my interest towards this game and hence started the journey,” he said.

After meeting him and getting to learn the tact of karate, he participated in several national and international championships. In 2014, he participated in the world championship that was held in Nepal.

“I had suffered an injury and for a year, I did not take any training. But, I didn’t want to make that tragedy affect me.