Indian boxer Pooja Rani (75kg) out-punched Algeria’s Ichrak Chaib in her opening bout to enter the quarter finals of her maiden Olympic Games on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old Indian clinched it 5-0, thoroughly dominating a rival 10 years her junior. The two-time Asian champion was in command with her right straights and also benefited immensely from Chaib’s lack of balance in the ring.
Next up for Pooja is Olympic bronze-medallist, two-time Asian champion, and former world gold-medallist Li Qian of China. The two will square off on Saturday.
All three rounds were a story of Pooja’s domination as Chaib, also appearing in her maiden Olympics, just could not figure a way to connect cleanly. Pooja played smart by keeping her distance. All she had to do was counter-attack as Chaib failed spectacularly in trying to hit powerfully, her wild swings mostly missing the target area.
The boxer’s Olympic journey has been the one of many struggles. She battled a career-threatening shoulder injury, a burnt hand and lack of financial support before making it this far. Her police officer father did not want her to pursue the sport as he felt boxing was a sport meant for aggressive people.
“Maar lag jaegi (you will get hurt). That’s what my father said. He insisted that the sport was not meant for me because in his mind, boxing was pursued by aggressive people,” she had recalled in an interview, detailing her journey.
The boxer from Bhiwani, Haryana, is in the middle of one of her best years in the sport, having won the Asian Boxing Championship gold in May and a victory over world champion Atheyna Bylon in March this year at the Boxam International Tournament where she won silver.
Pooja had qualified for the Olympics with a 5-0 win over Pornnipa Chutee in the quarter final of the women’s 75kg at the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers last year.
Among other Indians, Mary Kom is chasing her second Olympic medal, having won a bronze in the 2012 London edition. In the men’s competition, debutant Satish Kumar, the first super heavyweight (+91kg) to make the Olympic cut from India, will open his campaign in the pre-quarterfinal stage against Jamaica’s Ricardo Brown.
So far, Manish Kaushik (63kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg) and Ashish Chaudhary (75kg) have bowed out with opening-round losses from among the nine-strong squad that qualified for the Games.