CHENNAI: In 2015, Alfiya Pathan wanted to be a badminton player when she joined the Divisional Sports Complex at Nagpur. However, the interest soon switched to boxing as she watched youngsters training in the ring under the guidance of coach Arun Bute. Given the fact that her elder brother Shakib Pathan was also pursuing boxing, Alfiya decided to give the sport a try.
Six years later, on Saturday, she claimed India's first gold at the 30th Adriatic Pearl Tournament in Bar, Montenegro on Saturday. An Asian junior girls champion in 2019, Alfiya notched up an easy 5-0 win against Daria Kozorev of Moldova in +81kg weight category.
In fact, such was the dominance of Indian girls that all ten of them assured themselves a medal in the meet. Apart from Afiya, Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) and Vinka (60kg) also won the finals while Raj Sahiba (75kg) and Gitika (48kg) finished with a silver medal each.
The achievement makes more sense given the difficulties the team faced while reaching the venue. "We had to change four flights (New Delhi to Chennai, Chennai to Dubai, Dubai to Belgrade and Belgrade to Budva) to reach Budva only to know that the venue has been changed due to strict lockdown norms," Bhaskar Bhatt, women's national youth coach, told this daily.
However, Bhatt was all praise for the Boxing Federation of India for sending the Indian contingent despite all difficulties. He also lauded AIBA (world governing body) for making the event possible.
"The venue was shifted to Bar, but it was just a 40-minute bus ride from Budva and the organisers did a wonderful job by ferrying us to the new venue," Bhatt added.
Apart from three gold and two silver, India won a bronze as well. As many as two boxers have reached the finals while a couple of them were about to take on their opponents in the last-four stage at the time of filing this report.