She is a fighter who prefers to stay back, study her opponent closely and then go for the attack. Sakshi Chaudhary came to her 57kg pre-quarterfinal in the fourth Elite National women's boxing championship against Manipur’s Tongbram Premi Devi with a solid reputation.
The 19-year-old from Haryana has won the World championship thrice — once in junior and twice in the youth category. That could rattle any opponent. But this was Sakshi's maiden senior National and Tongbram tried to trouble her with a quick combination at the Mundayad indoor stadium on Thursday.
The Manipuri, a few inches shorter, attempted to go inside early and unleash a few upper cuts. She then came up with left hooks and followed it up with right jabs.
But Sakshi is a good dancer in the ring. She stepped back and evaded the barrage and put up a strong defence. And, she began to test the waters, first with a bit of pawing jabs and then with some hard and long left jabs. The punches appeared to be few but they were very effective.
Sakshi, coached by the famed Jagdish Singh in Bhiwani, was at her best in the final round and Tongbram was once given an eight-count. A little later, the Haryana girl emerged with a 5-0 verdict.
Meanwhile, another Haryana youngster, Nupur, adopted a bolder strategy against Himachal Pradesh's Sandhya in the 75kg pre-quarterfinal.
Daughter of coach Sanjay Kumar and perhaps the tallest boxer in her category, Nupur lowered her guard frequently, almost inviting her opponent to go in and attack, but whenever Sandhya came close, she held her back and punished her with a hard left.
Select results (pre-quarterfinals): Light flyweight (48kg): Aarti (Har) bt Gorli Jyothi (AP) 5-0; Priya Gorh (Asm) bt Anchu Sabu (Ker) 5-0.
Flyweight (51kg): Ritu Grewal (Har) bt Poonam (Raj) RSC-1; Deepa Kumari (MP) bt Sangita Rumale (Mah) 3-2; Vanlal Duati (Pol) bt Kamaljeet Kaur (Pun) 4-1. Bantamweight (54kg): Darshana (Har) bt Tejaswini Jivrag (Mah) 4-1; Gayatri (Utk) bt Battini Likhitha (AP) 5-0.
Featherweight (57kg): Sakshi Chaudhary (Har) bt Tongbram Premi Devi (Man) 5-0; T.C. Lalremruati (Miz) bt Tanu Solanki (MP) 5-0; Meenakshi (Rly) bt Nissy Laissy Thampy (Ker) 5-0.
Lightweight (60kg): G. Monisha (TN) bt Amandeep Kaur Madahar (Pun) 5-0; Pavitra (Rly) bt Muskan Gupta (Ben) RSC-1.
Middleweight (75kg): Nupur (Har) bt Sandhya (HP) 5-0.
