National Games-2025: Himachal women’s kabaddi team overcomes Haryana hurdle, wins gold for 3rd time in a row

The team had also clinched a gold medal in the National Kabaddi Championship-2024.

The team played under the captaincy of Pushpa Rana, 26, who is from Millah village at Shillai in Sirmaur district.

She was a member of the Indian Kabaddi team which won gold in the 19th Asian Games held in China in 2022.

Jyoti Rana, 27, one of the best raiders of the women’s team, is from Jakhed village near Kandaghat in Solan district. Jyoti Rana was also a member of the Indian Kabaddi team which participated in the 19th Asian Games in China. “All of us are from different parts of Himachal Pradesh. I am the only one from Solan district, Pushpa is from Sirmaur.

Many others are from Chamba, Kinnaur, Mandi and other districts. We have been trained at different sports centres for the last many years. I started playing kabaddi when I was 14. I belong to a simple family. My father is a driver and mother is a housewife. I am also pursuing my masters in Hindi language,” she said.

Jyoti Rana had undergone a knee surgery in March 2024. She was advised to take rest for almost eight months but she attended training sessions four months after the surgery.

Kabaddi coach Gopal Dasta said, “Many of our women kabaddi players who participated in the National Games-2025 were also selected for the India camp, a national-level training course for a selective group of kabaddi players this year. All these women players are from rural backgrounds and playing kabaddi for the last seven-eight years.

Four of them, including captain Pushpa Rana, are being trained at the Sports Authority of India (SAI)’s Dharamshala centre in Kangra district. The women kabaddi team of Himachal Pradesh has been doing extremely well at the national and international level for the last many years.”

“It is for the third time that our women’s kabaddi won the gold in the National Games. India’s eight best teams, which performed well during the National Kabaddi Championship-2024, participated in the National Games-2025 in Uttarakhand. Except for two team members, all kabaddi players in our team are those who were the members of the team which had won gold in the Senior National Kabaddi Games in 2024. Most of the women players are from two centres of Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Dharamshala and Bilaspur, and Nalagarh’s Khelo India Centre,” said Raj Kumar Bharanta, president of the State Kabaddi Federation.

Himachal Pradesh beat Haryana with 27-22 points. Himachal Pradesh entered the final after defeating Rajasthan and Haryana defeated Maharashtra in the semi-final matches.

The eight participating teams were from Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The players in Himachal Pradesh team were Sakshi Sharma, Jyoti, Shagun, Shivani, Jaspreet, Anshul, Champa and Bhavna. Team coach Gopal Dasta said that the raiding skills of Sakshi Sharma, Jyoti, Pushpa and Bhavna did excellent work during the tournament.

Two women players win medals in Wushu

Two women players of the state won bronze in Wushu in Uttarakhand. Madhu Devi won bronze in the Wushu Sanda category. Player Divya Rana won bronze in Taolu Qiangshu event of Wushu.

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