Bronze medalists of earlier editions of Asian Championships Anuradha Lama of Nepal Police Club (NPC) and Sanju Lama of Armed Police Force (APF) have been qualified for the “Road to Barbados” training program sponsored by the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) ahead of the 2010 AIBA Women´s World Championships to be held in Barbados from September 6-19. [break]
Although women boxers have always been kept at the bay in the South Asian Games (SAG), two of them have considerable experiences in Asian Championships.
Chief coach Prachanda Sharma says that women boxers were deprived of participation in SAG because the majority of countries in the region do not have enough women boxers.
“India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are the only countries that are ahead in women´s boxing in South Asia. The other countries, being Muslim countries, do not encourage women to learn boxing and we always have to withdraw our candidates because there aren´t enough boxers,” said Sharma.
Sharma believes that the players´ competitiveness would have been enhanced had the women´s boxing been included in SAG.
“It is really sad that we could not compete in the SAG. It would have helped us remain in form,” said Sanju who has been in the ring since the last eight years.
Nevertheless, the APF boxer was able to win a bronze in the Second Women´s Asian Boxing Championships in 2004 while Anuradha won a bronze in the fourth edition of the games three years later.
Sanju, however, says it´s easy to win a title but it´s difficult to defend it, referring to her loss in the fourth edition.
This time around, they are not looking forward for any medals as the boxers, like every other participants, are aware that the World Championships is going to be quite tough.
“Even if we do not win medals, we will put up a good fight,” said 25-year-old Sanju whose confidence got a boost after joining the APF. “We are getting regular training and our performance has improved a lot since joining the departmental teams,” she added.
Meanwhile, Anuradha, 28, joined the NPC in 2002 during her decade-long run in the game. Anuradha will be competing in the 60 kg weight category and Sanju in 51 kg in Barbados to shrug off the discrimination faced in SAG and record their names in history books even if they do not win medals.
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