Her Home Washed Away in Assam Floods. Three Weeks Later, She Won National Gold in Karate.

On July 19, floodwater poured into Bhogdoiporia Gaon, a village in Assam's Jorhat district, after an embankment breached roughly 150 metres from Janmoni Konwar's house. Her family had to leave and move up onto the embankment. Within days the house itself was gone, washed away, and the family was living under a tarpaulin sheet.

The flood took more than a roof. The Konwars raise fish and keep poultry, ducks, and buffaloes, and the fishery they had built up over nearly three years was badly damaged. Ducks and chickens were swept away, and the buffaloes had to be moved to higher ground. The fish harvest was supposed to pay for Janmoni's trip to Delhi for the national karate championship. It's not the first time her family has stretched to keep her competing: they once sold two buffaloes to cover competition costs.

Three days, no dojo

Janmoni is 17 and has been training in karate since she was five, under her coach Susanta Das. She competes in Ashihara, a full-contact style. With her village underwater and no proper facility available, she had just three days to prepare, and practised wherever she could, including on the road. Her coach describes her as consistent and diligent, able to train for two or three hours straight without stopping.

Help arrived from an unexpected direction. Alakh Pandey, founder of the education company Physics Wallah, visited flood-hit areas of Jorhat on August 3 and met her family. He gave them a ₹3 lakh cheque and covered her travel to Delhi and her accommodation there. Union Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita also gave her ₹10,000. Pandey has since played down his own part, saying the credit belongs to Janmoni.

Gold in Delhi

At the championship at Delhi's Talkatora Indoor Stadium in early August, she swept through all three of her bouts in the Ashihara category, winning the final 10–2. It adds to the bronze she won in 2023 and the gold she won in 2025, and this one came just weeks after she lost her home.

Her father, who played football himself, summed up what the family has been telling her all along: "Tu khel India ke liye," play for India.

What's next

Her next step is the Sports Authority of India (SAI), which could give her structured coaching and a route into higher-level competition. "Tomorrow I am going to SAI, so this is a special moment for me," she said after returning home. Back in Jorhat, she also coaches younger children in her village, most of them girls, and sticks to home-cooked food and no cold drinks.

Janmoni says her long-term dream is to win at the Olympics. Karate has had a patchy Olympic history, appearing only at the Tokyo 2020 Games, but whatever stage she ends up competing on, she has already shown she can win from about as far behind the starting line as an athlete can be.