Asian bronze-medallist Rupa Bayor has become India’s first Taekwondo player to be ranked as high as eighth in the latest world rankings, rising a rung from her previous career-best position.The 24-year-old Poomsae competitor from Arunachal Pradesh won a bronze medal at the World Taekwondo President Cup Europe held in Innsbruck, Austria, from November 29 to 30.
Earlier this year, she also won a bronze at the Australia Open Taekwondo Tournament in August. Poomsae is a non-combative form of Taekwondo in which competitors perform a pattern of moves like gymnastics routines to be evaluated by a panel of judges.
This format is currently a non-Olympic category but features in the Asian Games. Bayor, who trains at the Indo Korean Taekwondo Academy in Mumbai, was inducted into the Target Asian Games Group (TAGG) of the Sports Ministry in April this year. She is the only Indian in the top 100 of the world rankings across categories.
