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Starting young is imperative for success and that is exactly what the Indian female boxers seem to be following. With women’s boxing now a part of the Olympics schedule and four time world champion M C Marykom to emulate there is lots to look up for the females as far as boxing in India is concerned.
The latest challenge for the young crop in this field is coming up in the form of a women’s national championship.
Nationals for the sub-junior and junior category are going to be held in Erode from the 3rd to the 7th of May. The junior age group which includes girls between 12 and 14 will compete in as many as 30 weight categories and the girls in the junior age group (14-16) will fight it out in 11 weight categories. This is the first year that the sub-junior age group has been included in the national championship.
Karunakaran, the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Boxing Association and the Chairman of the organizing committee for the national games feels that including lot many more age groups is a great way to encourage more girls to take up boxing. In his words, “In the sub-junior age group we have many weight categories so that a lot of girls participate.”
A fierce competition seems to be on the cards with around 300-350 young girls expected to clash against each other. According to Karunakaran girls from Assam and Haryana will be the ones to look out for as these are the two states which generally produce the toughest bunch of boxers. But the local girls cannot be taken lightly as well since it’s been a good two years since the time boxing was introduced in schools for girls in Tamil Nadu.
For the winners the prize though is not just restricted to a medal at the championship, instead with selectors keeping an eye out for the young guns spots are up for grab at the youth national camp scheduled to be held later in the year. As the chairman puts it, “Our main aim for hosting the junior nationals is to spot talent and put them in the youth development program.”
Surely Marykom would be elated to see the upcoming talent in the tournament.
From office of Col PKM Raja
