The four-day Captain’s Cup Martial Arts Championship brought the intensity of full-contact karate and kickboxing along with the precision of kata and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the mats in Kolkata from August 15 to 18, drawing fighters from Kerala, Maharashtra, Assam and West Bengal.
Around 60 competitors took the mats each day across nearly 80 categories — an ambitious scale that tested both organisers and fighters.
One of the more telling numbers came not from medals but participation: 39 per cent of the athletes were women.
In a field that has long been dominated by men, the growing presence of women was seen as a positive change by many.
Some of the loudest cheers at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra venue were heard for Rishika Banerjee, the reigning Under-16 European Open Full Contact Karate Champion, and Sneha Samanta, who will travel to Japan in November for the Karate World Cup.
Modern High School for Girls became the first school to send an official team
Modern High School for Girls sent an official team, the first school to do so in the tournament’s brief history. Their medal-winning kata routines suggested that martial arts may be inching closer to mainstream school sport.
Behind the competitive edge, the event carried the feel of a collective experiment — 14 dojos from Kerala to Assam facing off against each other.