First top contest of female bodybuilders has been organized by India’s northeastern Assam state’s Indian Body Builders Federation. Including one each from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra states Five women participated in the one-day event in Assam's capital Guwahati.
Bhaba Goswami, one of the organizers, said they have been holding men’s version of the event for over three decades and called the female contest a major breakthrough in the state’s sports history.
Sanjana, a 26-year old bolybuilder won the competition. “I feel delighted to be the first winner of this event,” she said. “It has been a tough struggle right from the beginning mainly because of lack of resources and societal taboos,” said Sanjana, who is known as the “golden girl” among the fellow bodybuilders. “But my sheer hard work has paid all through.”
Sanjana works as an official in India’s customs department and comes from a small town in India’s most populous Uttar Pradesh state. In an Asian bodybuilding championship in 2018, she became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal.
