At the 44th Maharashtra State Sub Juniors Judo Tournament held in Dhule, Maharashtra this October 1 and 2, three young Parsi girls from Bombay picked up bronze medals: Farrah Jamsheed Patel in the 14-15 year age group, under 44 kg; Friya Khushnoor Jijina in 13-14 years, +44 kg; and Manashni Rohinton Umrigar in 12-13 years, +40 kg. Four days prior at the Mumbai Judo National Selection Trials at Gundavali Municipal School in Andheri on September 26, all three girls had won gold medals, notes a press release.
From left: Manashni Umrigar, Farrah Patel and Friya Jijina
The three young judokas have since been preparing to participate in the National Judo Championships in Bihar in October 2016.
A student of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Farrah started judo at the age of 10 under Sensei Cawas Billimoria and Sensei Kaushik Umrania. She signed up for the class to give company to her best friend but once she got hooked onto the sport, she practices an hour before school on weekdays and for two hours every Sunday. In 2015 she won gold medals at the meets organized by the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA), District Sports Office (DSO) and the Mayors Cup. She is also passionate about malkhamb (rope gymnastics) and enjoys reading, notes her mother Nazneen.
Friya started judo at the age of two years under Billimoria, winning her first gold medal at the age of four, according to information received from the family. A student of The Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School, she has been declared the Mayors Cup champion for the past seven years, has been winning gold medals at the MSSA for the last six years and been a medalist at the DSO for the last three years. In 2016 she also won a gold in the National Mushtido competition. Both her parents being judokas, she gets to practice with her mother Kamal who was a state and national champion, and benefits from cross training under her father Khushnoor, also a national judo champion who holds the distinction of being the first Indian to win a full contact fight mix martial arts (MMA) championship. A professional coach, Khushnoor has been training the American top 10 MMA team in Thailand.
Manashni, a student of J. B. Vachha High School, has been training in karate and judo for the past two-and-a-half years under the guidance of Sensei Jehangir Shroff, president of the Yudansha Kobujitsu Karate Doh Federation (India). She has represented her school and club in judo and won medals at the DSO, MSSA and other inter-school competitions, states the family. She also loves elocution and has won inter-school competitions.