Ten gold, five silver, one bronze. Sixteen medals in all, carried back to Jammu in the luggage of six teenagers who, until a few days ago, were largely unknown outside the city's small wushu circuit. The squad flew home into Jammu airport in the first week of August, was garlanded on the tarmac, and went quiet again. But the number they brought back from Batumi is worth pausing on — and so is the request their association made almost in the same breath.
The six competed at the Batumi Open International Wushu Tournament, held in the Georgian coastal city of Batumi from the end of July into early August. All of them were part of the India contingent in the junior and sub-junior categories, and all of them earned their place the hard way: through national selection trials held in Dehradun back in April. Wushu, for anyone who has only half-heard the word, is a modern Chinese martial art with two competitive branches — taolu, the choreographed forms judged on precision and difficulty, and sanda, full-contact sparring. Jammu's medallists were forms athletes, and it shows in the tally.
Who won what
The medals were spread across the group, not stacked on one prodigy. Aahan Sharma was the standout with two golds and a silver. Dhruvika Gupta took two golds. Pratibha Devi won a gold and two silvers, and Swarit Singh Chib matched that with a gold and two silvers of his own. Hiranya Mahajan and Rudra Pratap Singh each added a gold.
Some of that came in pairs. In the duilian — a choreographed two-person routine that looks like a duel and is scored like a dance — Swarit Singh Chib and Rudra Pratap Singh won gold in the boys' event, while Hiranya Mahajan and Dhruvika Gupta took gold in the girls'. A group event brought home the lone bronze. The squad was coached by Sher Bhadur, who travelled with them.
None of this happened in isolation. J&K has quietly become one of India's stronger wushu states — its teams are regulars on the podium at national sub-junior and junior championships, and Jammu has hosted ranking tournaments and inter-university meets of its own. The man who runs the sport here, Wushu Association of J&K president Vijay Saraf, was recently elected general secretary of the Wushu Association of India and to a role in the South Asian federation. On paper, the ecosystem is thriving.
The catch nobody put on a medal
Which is exactly why the association's reaction to Batumi is the most telling part of the story. Alongside the congratulations, Saraf used the moment to press a request to the J&K Government: build the athletes a standardised wushu training hall. The association has also appealed for a dedicated wushu academy, pointing ahead to the 2026 Asian Games, while crediting the J&K Sports Council for the support that got the team to Georgia in the first place.
Read that again in plain terms. A group of Jammu kids is winning gold on an international mat — and the people who run their sport are still asking for a proper place for them to practise. That gap, between the results and the room to produce them, is the real headline for anyone in this city weighing up a sport for themselves or a younger sibling. The talent is clearly here. The infrastructure is playing catch-up.
It is a familiar shape in Jammu's sporting life. The city has produced shooters, swimmers, footballers and skaters who punch well above the facilities they trained in, and the recurring theme in each of their stories is the same: a purpose-built venue arrives, if it arrives, after the medals rather than before them. A dedicated wushu hall would not just polish the current crop; it would lower the barrier for the next twelve-year-old who watches this squad get felicitated and thinks, quietly, that they could do that too.
What it means if you're young in Jammu
If you have never considered wushu, this is a decent moment to. It rewards discipline over size, forms athletes train much of the year indoors, and — as this squad shows — the pathway from a Jammu training session to an international podium is real, routed through open selection trials rather than connections. The Wushu Association of J&K is the body to approach for where organised coaching is happening in the city; it is the same association that just put six of its own on a plane to Georgia and brought back sixteen medals.
For now, the squad has done its part. Aahan Sharma, Dhruvika Gupta, Pratibha Devi, Swarit Singh Chib, Hiranya Mahajan and Rudra Pratap Singh have added another line to Jammu's steadily lengthening list of young athletes who won something abroad and asked for very little at home. The next move belongs to the people who can build them a hall.
Source: Daily Excelsior — "Six J&K wushu players claim 16 medals in Georgia".
