Ranchi, Feb. 14: Jharkhand has three golden girls now, all in taekwondo.

They are all imports. Sonam Rajput, who started Jharkhand’s golden haul yesterday, is from Delhi, K. Srilakshmi is from Andhra Pradesh and today’s golden girl Tasim Begum is from Assam. But for the state, they are ghar ki betiyaan.

For Sonam (21), winner of the gold in Under-67kg category yesterday and silver in last year’s Commonwealth Games, Jharkhand is familiar turf. She has been playing for the state for three years now. With dad O.P. Rajput, a former wrestler, and brother Nishant who finished 5th in karate in the Guangzhou Asian Games, it is a sporting family. She picked up taekwondo after she lost her first school contest rather badly in 1997. “My parents wanted me to take up karate. I opted for taekwondo. Had I not lost the school meet, I would have never taken it up seriously,” Sonam said.

What’s her strength? “I love an attacking game. Even yesterday, I went in full flow against Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Manipur,” said the metro girl.

In contrast, Srilakshmi (22), winner of Under-73kg category, hails from a remote village in Kanduru, 60km away from Tirupati. The village girl hadn’t heard of taekwondo till 2002. Today, she has her eyes set on London Olympics, 2012.

She is also unfailingly modest. “Hard work paid off. But this is just a start,” she said of her win.

Even before she packed a punch against rivals from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Sikkim on the terraflex floor of Ganpat Rai Indoor Stadium on Sunday, her coaches predicted her win, as she was on a winning spree. In Hyderabad (32nd National Games) she won bronze, in Assam (the 33rd edition) she clinched silver. “I was confident that I will bag one medal but my mentors said I would get gold. Here it is,” she showed the disc.

“We were sure of her gold,” said Prabhat Sharma, secretary of Jharkhand Taekwondo Association.

It hasn’t been easy. Srilakshmi was overweight and came from a poor family. Her parents were cooks. So what motivated her to take to this sport? “Sheer chance. One day I met a taekwondo coach in my village who had come to a relative’s place. As soon as he saw me, he asked me if I wanted to play this game. I had never heard of it. I just asked him ‘will I get slim?’” she said, smiling.

Now, she just loves the sport. “My family is still poor. But they get respect because of me,” she said.

Assamese girl Tasim Begum (21) had walked away with the best player award in the junior girls category in last year’s Commonwealth Games. This year, she is representing Jharkhand for the first time, striking gold in Under-49kg. “Winning for Jharkhand is a matter of pride,” she beamed.

Chance played a big role. “Somehow I couldn’t qualify for my state and I had requested Jharkhand long before to allow me to play,” she said.