CHENNAI: Former world youth champion Sakshi Chaudhary belied her age to put up a remarkable performance on Wednesday. Starting her quest for a Tokyo Olympics berth in the ongoing Asia/Oceania qualifiers in Amman, Jordan, the 19-year-old stunned fourth seed and 2019 Asian Championships silver medallist Nilawan Techasuep of Thailand 4-1.
A product of the famed Bhiwani Boxing Club, Sakshi needs just one more win to confirm her Olympic dream. On Wednesday, the 57kg boxer displayed remarkable maturity. In the opening round, she took some time to study her more-famed rival, who showed some real aggression and had Sakshi on her toes with some good punches.
Techasuep was aggressive in the second round as well and had Sakshi on the backfoot with a barrage of combination straight punches. But Sakshi kept calm in the final round. She hit some good counter-punches to keep her opponent at bay. “I knew she is a strong boxer but we had a plan for the bout. The coaches had advised me to use counter-tactics against her and that really worked and I could land my punches cleanly on her,” Sakshi said. India high performance director Raffaele Bergamasco, who has coached her since her youth days, conceded that he was wary of Sakshi’s opponent. But he was happy with the manner in which Sakshi adapted.
“Sakshi was excellent, she beat a great opponent. I was actually a little worried before the bout given her opponent’s experience. But we had worked on a strategy and she adapted well during the match and it was a good performance. Now, our focus is the next bout,” he told this daily. Next up for Sakshi is IM Aeji of Korea. Later, Simranjit Kaur (60kg) beat Kazakhstan’s Rimma Volossenko 5-0. On Thursday, the focus will shift to the 2019 World Championships bronze medallist Manish Kaushik (63kg), who’ll face Chinese Taipei’s Lai Chu-En in the pre-quarters. Sachin Kumar (81kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) will also be seen in action.