Avtar Singh (born 3 April 1992) is an Indian

judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics being held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

, Brazil.

Personal life

Singh was born on 3 April 1992 in

Gurdaspur Gurdaspur is a city in the Indian state of Punjab, between the rivers Beas and Ravi. It houses the administrative headquarters of Gurdaspur District and is in the geographical centre of the district, which shares a border with Pakistan. T ...

Punjab, India Punjab (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Himachal ...

. Whilst growing up in Kothe Ghurala village, he spent time working on his parents farm. He works as an assistant sub inspector for the Punjab Police.

Judo

He represented India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

, Scotland. In the men's middleweight event, he was defeated by eventual silver medallist Matthew Purssey of Scotland in the round of 16. Singh competed in just six events from 2015 until May 2016, with problems with the Indian Federation and with getting funding preventing him from travelling to tournaments. Before a Grand Prix event in Turkey in 2016, his parents gave him their life savings to allow him to pay for tickets to travel to Turkey, his coach Yashpal Solanki (Arjuna Awardee) is the major support for him along with his family. At the

2016 South Asian Games The 2016 South Asian Games, officially the XII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which took place from 5 February to 16 February 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes competed in 226 events over 22 sports ...

held in India, Singh took part in the 90 kg division. He defeated Sanjay Maharjan of Nepal and Md Jahangir Alam of Bangladesh to reach the final where he beat Mohammad Kakar of Afghanistan inside 49 seconds to win the gold medal. At the

Asian Judo Championships Asian Judo Championships is the Judo Asian Championship organized by the Judo Union of Asia. The men's tournament began in 1966 and was held approximately every four years, until 1991, when it became an annual event (except in the years when th ...

held in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

, Uzbekistan in April 2016, he reached the semifinals before losing to Tajikistan's

Komronshokh Ustopiriyon Komronshokh Ustopiriyon (born 7 January 1993) is a Tajikistani judoka. Ustopiriyon competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Ja ...

. He then defeated Saeed Moradi of Iran in the repcharge round before losing his final bout to Chinese judoka

Cheng Xunzhao Cheng Xunzhao (born 9 February 1991) is a Chinese judoka. He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI ...

to place fifth overall. His results in 2016 allowed him to improve his world ranking from below 200th up to 79th, high enough for him to secure one of the Asian continental qualification quota places for the men's 90 kg event at the 2016 Summer Olympics due to be held in

, Brazil. Competing in his first Olympics, held at Rio in 2016, Avtar lost in the first round against

Popole Misenga Popole Misenga (born 25 February 1992) is a judoka originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio d ...

of the Refugee Olympic Team in the Men's 90 kg event. The opponent won the match by the smallest score Yuko.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Avtar Living people 1992 births Judoka at the 2014 Commonwealth Games People from Gurdaspur Indian male judoka Indian police officers Judoka at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka of India Indian male martial artists Martial artists from Punjab, India Judoka at the 2018 Asian Games South Asian Games gold medalists for India Asian Games competitors for India South Asian Games medalists in judo Commonwealth Games competitors for India 21st-century Indian people