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Saweety Boora may struggle to retain ‘public attention’ among boxing lovers but make no mistake – she is a hugely talented boxer, who has achieved quite a lot in her fledging career so far. The 22-year-old Hisar girl, who had won a silver medal at the 2014 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship in Jeju City, South Korea, is maintaining her ‘medal-winning momentum’ after scooping up a silver medal in the recent Asian Boxing Championship in Wulanchabu, China. Saweety first shot into prominence when she won the 2009 Senior Nationals – she went to win bronze in the 2012 Senior Nationals before winning back-to-back gold medals in the 2013 and 2014 editions among a host of medals at the national level.
The Haryana girl talks about the 2016 AIBA World Women Boxing Championship and much more in an exclusive interview.
Excerpts:
Q You must be high on confidence after winning the silver medal in light heavyweight category (81-kg) at the recent Asian Boxing Championship in Wulanchabu, China – you were the only Indian to reach the final even as five others settled for bronze medals after losing in the semifinals?
I was happy to do well in the Asian Boxing Championship. The competition was quite tough and I had to be at my best to be in medal contention. I lost my final to China’s Yang Xiaoli – she is a tough opponent – I thought I gave my best but was unlucky to finish runners-up.
Q Yang Xiaoli is an opponent you boxed earlier – she denied you a much-coveted gold medal in light heavyweight category (81-kg) at the 2014 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship in Jeju City, South Korea
Yeah, I had lost to her in the final of the 2014 World’s Women Boxing Championship. She had boxed better than me on that occasion though I felt that I gave a run for her money in the recent Asian Boxing Championship.
Q Talking of the 2014 World’s Women Boxing Championship, you must be having be fond memories as winning a medal in such a marquee event for a 21-year-old must be a pretty exciting feeling.
Winning a medal in the World’s Women Boxing Championship is a big thing but it would have been really nice if I had landed a gold medal in Korea. I have age on my side and can surely improve on it in future. I outboxed a Netherlands pugilist in the first round and then I got past a Croatian opponent. I defeated an Ukraine opponent in the semifinals before losing to Yang in the final.
Q Isn’t it remarkable that our women boxers have done quite well despite no federation in place.
You are right but then for how long we can go on like this. We need a federation to run the affairs simply because that’s how we can have the opportunity to take part in more national level tournaments as well international exposure-cum-training sessions.
Q India won two silver medals in the 2014 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship in Korea in November last year and not a single national event has been held with players just training and jumping straight into competitions like the recent Asian Boxing Championship.
Our boxing is getting badly hit as we are not having any tournaments at the national level. We are doing our training and going for international competitions. You need match practice to improve and know where you stand – merely training won’t help.
Q The 2016 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship is not far away – it will be held in the first half of the year in Kazakhstan.
Pretty excited about that – hope to put my best foot forward in the selection trials and earn a spot and line up my plans of coming up with a strong performance in the 2016 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship.
Q The 2016 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship will be the qualifying event for the 2016 Rio Olympics. You box in 81 kg, which is not an Olympic event as the mega event has three categories – 51 kg, 60kg and 75 kg.
Look , I box in the 81 kg but it is no big deal for me to reduce my weight and fight in the 75 kg as I have done before. As far as my Olympic aspirations are concerned, I will look to fight in the selection trials in the 75kg for the 2016 AIBA World’s Women Boxing Championship and then look at 81 kg as another option. Let’s see how it works out.
Q There is a lot of competition in the 75 kg for an Olympic berth – your thoughts.
I agree that it will not be easy. There are so many contenders – 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist Pooja Rani, Monica Saun and Neetu Chahal among others.
Q How do you unwind when you are not boxing?
I like to do a bit of painting in my free time and also like to sing bhajans at home.
Q Tell us a bit about family.
My father Mahender Singh is a farmer while I have two brothers – one played cricket in the state under-19 level and the other is a boxer like me.
