KOLKATA: For Haobijam Tendenthoi Devi, the journey to her second Asian Games has been as much about finding her way back from grief as it has been about finding her rhythm on the water.The Manipur rower was forced to step away from training for nearly a month after her mother, H Memchoubi Devi, was hospitalised while battling the autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Her mother eventually passed away in Dec 2024, leaving Tendenthoi to cope with a deeply personal loss while trying to return to the demands of elite competition.The extended break from training that followed made her return to competitive rowing particularly difficult, but the support of her coach and teammates helped her get back on the water.“It was just before the National Games in Uttarakhand, but I couldn’t practise during that time. Jumping straight into competition training after a month-long break was hard. But my coach and team were very supportive,” said Tendenthoi, who is part of India’s women’s coxless four rowing team in Asiad.Even her coach found it difficult initially to figure out how to train her. “If she used to fall a little sick, she would immediately feel that the same illness might happen to her,” said coach Ratheesh DB.“For the first two or three months, I also had to work with her and think about how we could get her back into practice and move her forward. Initially, she looked a little weak, but gradually, with the support she received, she improved.”However, as the rower from Bishnupur now prepares for her second Asian Games, she will be focused on a very different outcome from her first experience in Hangzhou, China, when she was part of the women’s coxed eight team that finished fifth in the final.“It was my first international competition, but I struggled to build self-confidence and didn’t quite get the opportunity to showcase my performance,” said the 23-year-old. “Since then, I’ve worked on my self-confidence and focused on how I need to execute things myself.”A lot will depend on her in this edition of the Asiad, with Tendenthoi occupying the No. 3 position – the powerhouse of the crew, according to her coach. The others in the team are Poonam (No. 4), Aleena Anto (No. 2) and Gurbani Kaur (No. 1).Another advantage this time will be the long period the quartet has spent together. “Earlier, we would get the crew together only about four or five months before a competition. But this time, the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) provided the team with the facilities to train for the last one-and-a-half years, and that is very important in rowing,” said the coach.Besides training, the crew has also worked regularly on mental preparation, including meditation and sessions with a psychologist, which have particularly helped Tendenthoi.