City’s Deia S Urs, State No.1 ranked karate kata champ, who took part in the All India Inter-University Karate Championships (2021-2022) hosted by Kurukshethra University, Kurukshethra, Haryana, between Mar. 14 and 17 at the campus indoor stadium, has bagged Bronze Medal for University of Mysore (UoM) in the Women’s Individual Kata Category.

She faced a very stiff competition from 87 opponents in two pools and entered the quarterfinals. In quarterfinals, Deia topped her pool by securing 26.60 points as against her opponent Divya Gupta’s (Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh) 25.90 points. But, in semifinals, she lost to P. Farshana of University of Calicut by a narrow margin of 0.2 points. While Farshana secured 26.20 points, Deia managed to score 26.00 points. In reverse bronze medal bout, Deia secured 28.82 points and defeated R. Mahalakshmi of Avinashlingam University, Coimbatore, who secured 27.24 points, to win Bronze.

Deia is the first person from Karnataka to win a medal in the individual kata category. Mesom Singhi of Lovely Professional University, Punjab, won Gold. P. Farshana bagged Silver and Debanjali Karmakar of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, took second Bronze.

Deia is trained by her father B.S. Srinath Urs. Both practice under All India Shito Ryu Karate Do Union President Hanshi C.S. Arun Machaiah, who is also the President of South India Karate Do Federation & Akhila Karnataka Sports Karate Association.

Over 2,000 karatekas from 168 Universities all over India took part is this Championship. From Mysore University, an 11-member karate women and men’s team — Deia Urs (Female Kata), S. Ashwini (-45 kg), R. Dakshayini (-50 kg), T. Krithi (-61 kg), S. Sudha (-68 kg), P. Harshitha (+68 kg Kumite), S. Shashank (-50 Kg), Pavan Ponnappa (-55 kg), D. S. Thejas (Male Kata & -60 Kg), G. Shashank (-67 kg) & H.V. Hruschith (-75 kg Kumite) — took part in this Championships. They were accompanied by Manager Jashwanth, Coaches Sensei S. Deepak Kumar and Sensei Bharathi.

Along with Deia Urs, D.S. Thejas (-60 kg Individual Kumite), S. Ashwini, R. Dakshayini, T. Krithi S. Sudha (Team Kumite) will be representing Mysore University at Khelo India Games to be held at Bengaluru in April 2022.