India’s women boxers packed a tidy punch at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships last month. Seven of them made it to the finals in Kielce, Poland, with all of them clinching gold — an Indian record at this marquee event. An eighth gold was bagged by the sole men’s finalist, Sachin (56kg).
The gold winners — Gitika Narwal (48kg), Babyrojisana Chanu (51kg), Poonam (57kg), Vinka (60kg), Arundhati
Choudhary (69kg), T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) and Alfiya Pathan (+81kg) — a fearless and highly motivated bunch, created quite a ripple in the boxing world as they lorded over the rings.
“It was an extraordinary performance from the girls, each motivating the other,” Bhaskar Bhatt, head coach of the national youth women’s team, told The Telegraph. “To be honest, we had been expecting 4-5 gold medals from the girls. Seven came as a very pleasant bonus.”
The achievement tastes even sweeter considering the fact that much of the training during the lockdown last year was imparted online.
“It was a new concept for us too, that training for a physical sport could be imparted online… but it was successful. Coaches, nutritionist, physiotherapist, psychologist, fitness trainer everyone was around to cater to every need of the wards.”
Vinka Sourced by Correspondent
India’s previous best was five gold medals at the 2017 meet in Guwahati.
A talk with the medallists, all 17-18-year-olds, revealed their grit and spunk.
Take Vinka, for example. When she was five years old, this Haryana girl had fallen from the second floor of her house and needed 25 stitches.
“The doctors had strictly forbidden me to play any games where there would be chances of injury. As a challenge, I took up boxing,” she laughed.
For Alfiya, watching her brother box developed in her a keen desire for the sport.
“And then the movie Mary Kom made me determined to take to boxing,” she said.
Coming from a conservative family, the first hurdle was getting permission from her father. “Initially it was a downright ‘no’,” she said. “Much pleading and three-four days of non-stop crying later, he relented.”
Kota girl Arundhati decided to take up the sport after regularly beating up boys in school.
The girls have set their sights on the 2024 Olympics. Not an impossible dream, is it?
