Pwilao Basumatary, a World youth bronze medallist in 2011, represents a group of Railways boxers who train without a boxing coach from their own department in Guwahati.
After taming an aggressive Aakanksha 5-0 in a second round bout to reach the 64kg quarterfinals in the National women’s boxing championship at the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex here on Tuesday, Pwilao was determined to do better this time.
“Last time I was hospitalised prior to the Nationals and lost in the quarterfinals. Here I look forward to be among the medals,” said Pwilao.
Determination
In fact, it was her determination which kept Pwilao going.
Pwilao and Minu Basumatary of Kokrajhar area of Assam had hit headlines by claiming bronze and gold medal respectively in the World youth championship in Turkey.
However, they could not do justice to their talent due to the lack of any guidance.
“Since 2014, when I joined the Railways in Guwahati, there is no boxing coach from our department. We had made a request regarding this but to no avail,” said Pwilao, who trains with some elite Railways boxers, including Bhagyabati Kachari and Rumi Gogoi.
“We train under coaches during the Railways camp before the National championship.
Otherwise, we train on our own. I watch videos of the Olympics and try to pick up some points,” said Pwilao, an Asian championship bronze medallist in 2015.
Alari Boro upset former Asian Games bronze medallist Kavita Goyat 3-2 in a keenly-fought 75kg second round bout.
Former World champion L. Sarita Devi (60kg), two-time Worlds bronze medallist Kavita Chahal (82kg) and Asian championship silver medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) advanced smoothly.
Important results:
Pre-quarterfinals: 48kg: Archana Thapa (Utk) bt Fancy Devi (AIP) 4-1, Bina Devi (Man) bt S. Kalaivani (TN) 5-0, Aarohi Birajdar (Mah) bt Muni Lya (Aru) 3-2, Varsha Choudhery (UP) bt G. Jyothi (AP) 3-2, Khushboo Tokas (Del) bt Rituz (Chd) 4-1.
51kg: Sarjubala Devi (Man) bt Saroj (Raj) 5-0, Nikhat Zareen (Tel) bt Ramisha Lyngdoh (Meg) RSC-R1.
54kg: Shiksha (RSPB) bt Jyoti (Raj) 5-0, Manisha (Har) bt Sonia 5-0, Richa Sharma (WB) bt N.L. Thampy (Ker) 3-1.
57kg: Sonia Lather (RSPB) bt Preeti (Pun) 5-0, Shashi Chopra (Har) bt Saloni Shah (Mah) 4-1.
60kg: L. Sarita Devi (AIP) bt Muthulakshmi (TN) RSC-R1, Priyanka Choudhary (Utk) bt Manju (Chd) 5-0, Pavitra (RSPB) bt Shivani Bharti (Bih) RSC-R1.
64kg: Pwilao Basumatary (RSPB) bt Aakansha (Bih) 5-0, Simranjit Kaur (Pun) bt Sarika Kumari 5-0.
69kg: Memthoi Devi (AIP) bt Aruna Geetha (AP) RSC-R1, Lovlina Borgohain (Asm) bt Almas Shaikh (Mah) RSC-R1, Gagandeep Kaur (Pun) bt Th. Aruna Devi (Man) 5-0.
75kg: Alari Boro (Asm) bt Kavita Goyat (AIP) 3-2. 81kg: Parvaz Kaur (Pun) bt G. Geya Rupini (AP) 5-0, Bhagyabati Kachari (RSPB) bt Laxmi Padiya (Jha) 5-0.
82kg: Kavita Chahal (AIP) bt Tejinder Kaur (Chd) 5-0.
