CHENNAI: Everybody loves a good underdog story. Young boxer Meenakshi Hooda is in the process of scripting a tale worthy of that. Daughter of an auto rickshaw driver, Meenakshi, before the seeds of boxing was sown in her mind, was clearly at a disadvantage due to scarcity of money in her family. To compound matters, her uncle didn't want her to pursue her passion — he was against the idea of women getting into combat sports. Despite all the hardships, she persisted and gradually made her way up before joining the national setup.
At the iconic city of Liverpool, Meenakshi, having earned her stripes at the elite level, hit a new peak on Friday. A peak that had once seemed a distant dream. The 48kg boxer, employing her long reach to her advantage, got the better of Alice Pumphrey of England in the last-eight stage at the M&S Bank Arena in the ongoing World Championships. A boxer, who had started with barely anything, has now joined an esteemed club of becoming a medallist at the marquee event, second only to the Olympics.
With Meenakshi's outcome, Indian women now have a total of four medals in the marquee event. One person who has been a rock in her career is Vijay Hooda, her coach at Rohtak district. He has laboured alongside Meenakshi over the years and he's filled with joy with her medal-winning outcome.
"Before this, some of my students were able to qualify for the Asian Championships and World Championships. I was waiting for two years for the World Championship medal. Today (Friday), Meenakshi got it. It is a happy day for me," Vijay said.
In the last two years or so, Meenakshi had been organically getting the Ws and making people take notice. In 2023, she had captured nationals gold and she had repeated that feat earlier this year in Greater Noida, outpunching the likes of Nitu Ghanghas, a more-decorated counterpart, during that run.
In the World Boxing Cup in June/July, she returned with a silver medal. With some significant wins at the highest level, Meenakshi now has the backing of even her uncle. "He (father) is still driving an auto. Meenakshi has always been a diligent worker and she continues to remain disciplined. She enjoys training. At the start, her uncle didn't want her to take up the sport. They used to tell her: 'Don't go to the stadium, don't do boxing, this is not a sport for women'. But she didn't listen and now she has gone on to hit tall standards. Now, everyone is happy including her uncle."
When she is not part of the camp, Vijay trains her at the Shaheed Batun Singh Stadium at their village in Rurki, Rohtak (Haryana). As is the case with other young trainees, Vijay used to provide her with her training requirements during her difficult years. Inspired by legendary figure MC Mary Kom, Vijay had started the endeavour of pushing women pugilists in 2012.
A constable at the ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police), Meenakshi understandably has been making a welcome shift from her early days of labour. She also has the support of Olympic Gold Quest, who took her under their wings after her golden show in the nationals earlier this year. "Now, she gets a proper diet and kits. Everything is managed. Now, we just have to focus on training," Vijay said.
Meenakshi's immediate test is Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg and she'll be determined to add gloss to her story. The coach, who currently trains around 70 to 80 boxers at the aforementioned stadium for free, has some long-term goals in his mind.
"The Commonwealth Games are happening next year. That's the first target. When the Olympic trials begin, we'll try for the 51kg. We're ready for that too."
Having beaten the biggest of odds, those targets could be well within her reach.
Jaismine, Nupur enter final
Jaismine Lamboria is now a hit away from ultimate glory. The 57kg boxer, who has had a dream season, put up a polished performance against Omailyn Alcala of Venezuela on Friday to enter the gold-medal match (to be held on Saturday). Nupur Sheoran (+80kg), just a few minutes later, followed Jaismine's footsteps to enter the summit match. Earlier, Jadumani Singh (men's 50kg), had missed out on a medal after losing against Sanzhar Tashkenbay of Kazakhstan in the last-eight stage. That also meant the men boxers from the country will return empty-handed from the ongoing championship.