Unnati Sharma won the bronze medal in the women’s -63kg category to extend India’s impressive judo campaign at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Unnati, a 2025 National Games champion, defeated South Africa’s Skye Knoester by ippon in the bronze-medal bout, wrapping up the contest in just a minute and seven seconds at the Scottish Event Campus.
Ranked outside the world’s top 100, the Indian judoka produced a decisive leg hook for the match-winning ippon.
Unnati had opened her campaign with an ippon victory over Eswatini’s Lamulela Magagula in the round of 16 before edging New Zealand’s Qona Christie by waza-ari in the quarter-finals.
She then lost by ippon to Australia’s Saya Middleton, the eventual silver winner, in the semi-finals to drop into the bronze medal playoff.
India’s hopes of a second medal on the day, however, ended when Harsh Tokas went down in the men’s -81kg bronze-medal contest against Australia’s Keishin Ochi. The Indian lost by ippon.
Harsh had earlier suffered a quarter-final defeat to Cyprus’ Odysseas Georgakis before getting back into medal contention with an ippon victory over Samoa’s Peniamina Percival in the repechage.
Elsewhere, Karanjit Singh Maan reached the men’s -90kg quarter-finals with an ippon win over New Zealand’s Elliott Connolly before suffering defeats to Canada’s Guillaume Gaulin in the last eight and Scotland’s Scott Cuscak in repechage.
In the women’s -70kg competition, Inunganbi Takhellambam, bronze medallist at the Asian Judo Championships earlier this year, bowed out after losing to Canada’s Charlie Thibault in the quarter-finals and England’s Jemima Yeats-Brown in the repechage.
On Friday, Asmita Dey became the country’s first-ever Commonwealth Games judo champion after claiming gold in the women’s -48kg category.
Harsh Singh added another gold in the men’s -60kg while Yamini Mourya also claimed silver in the women’s -57kg division.
