When you think of Team India at the Olympic Games, you think of athletics, track and field, shooting, and maybe even tennis and table tennis. You don’t usually think of karate and that’s where we want to introduce you to someone called Bhaskar Sen, who made the country proud by becoming the only Indian athlete to attend the Olympic Karate Event in Nippon Budokan.
Requested to carry the tricolors at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 after his performance in the Paris OQE Warm Up tournament this year, Bhaskar is originally from Delhi but now lives in Germany where he shuffles between his studies and the continuous hunger of bettering himself at this newly added Olympic sport.
Baseball/Softball, sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding, and Karate were the 5 additional sports becoming a part of the Tokyo Olympics. Owing to his dream to get an Olympic Gold and aspire for the podium, Bhaskar got a first of his kind victory at the German University Championship 2020 in Dec 2020, where he faced elite challengers from Germany’s best clubs all fighting for the top spot.
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This was the first time an Indian player has been on the podium in the prestigious German University Championship, organized by General Germany University Sports Federation. This was under the aegis of the German Olympic Association and Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community. It’s also considered the best prep tournament for the Olympic Games stage in Europe.
His win at Helsinki and at the popular Elbe-Cup in Hamburg brought Bhaskar Sen closer to securing an Olympic berth for the nation, being supported by six different world referees. Bhaskar was also seen in attendance at the Salzburg Open, where he was ranked 16th in his group. These achievements saw him gaining a lot of popularity and substantial and much required Olympic points as well.
Bhaskar’s course to become the first Karate athlete of Indian origin became true in Olympics 2021, attending the second qualification round in Austria in March 2020. This included an intensive training camp in Belgium under 5-time World Champion earlier this year as well. Bhaskar has represented the country at the international level since 2009 from World Championships to Commonwealth Games.
Also being a 3-time Commonwealth medalist and being the 2015 and 2016 US Open Champion, Bhaskar has also single handedly led the UPB, Germany contingent to 9th place in 2020 at the National University Championships in Heidelberg. He did this albeit belonging to a country (India) where support for a game like karate is utterly and badly low.
“There were over 400 competitors, many of whom have been my friends since ages. I had my eyes on the title since long, it was really an unforgettable experience” said Bhaskar after becoming the first Indian to reach the podium in the prestigious Elbe-Cup. For similar stories, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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