New Delhi, Apr 12 : Indian women are all set to battle it out at the inaugural edition of the AIBA Women's Junior/Youth World Boxing Championship which gets underway in Antalya, Turkey from April 21 to May 1 in which emerging boxing talents from all over the world will clash for top honours.
The 16 member team are currently engaged in honing their skills at the on-going Youth and Junior Women Boxing camps at Trivandrum and Vishakhapatnam respectively. The pugilists are in the last phase of what has been a rigorous training.
Chief Coach at the youth camp, D Chandralal, is confident of a good showing as the past experience of the youth player in Turkey has been favourable.
"Every woman is being trained individually, we have worked very hard to enhance their strengths and perfect their technique," he said.
"The team is going to do very well and I am hopeful of five medals", he added.
Young Indian women pugilists will now get the opportunity to showcase their talents which has so far been a male-dominated show at the international arena.
In the recent years, Indian boys have consistently performed well at this level of the sport. After winning laurels for the country at the Youth and Junior World Championships, boxers like Nanao Singh, Vikas Krishan, Shiva Thapa and Sunil have made a mark for themselves in the sport.
Gold medallist at the Youth Women National Boxing Championships last year S Sarjubala Devi will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Youth World Championships.
Chandralal has high hopes for the girl from Manipur and believes she has a good chance of clinching the gold.
I V Rao, coach-in-charge at the junior women coaching camp at STC Vishakhapattnam, said although the team had worked on the overall development of the boxer but emphasis has been on the speed and ring strategy.
He expressed, "this is a great opportunity for these young women athletes to make it big at the international arena and we are confident of a good performance".
Meanwhile the junior championships would be led by Lalenkawli in the 46 kilogram weight category. The confident reigning junior national champion said, "We have had a very good training going into the championships and gold is what I am looking at".
The event will also serve as the testing ground for the new AIBA scoring system, which will make its official debut at Turkey. As per the new scoring structure points will be awarded after taking the average of the three Judges scores which are the closest together instead of the accepted points within one second time frame.
The 16 member team for both the events are listed below.
Youth Women's World Championship: 48 KG S Sarjubala Devi (Manipur), 51 KG Sanasri Brahma (Assam), 54 KG Pwilao Basumatary (Assam), 57 KG Anjali Machahari (Assam), 60 KG Poonam Chahal (Haryana), 64 KG Minu Basumatary (Assam), 69 KG Heena Tokas (Delhi), 75 KG Alary Bord (Assam).
Junior Women's World Championship: 46 KG Lalenkawli (Mizoram), 48 KG H Chanchan Devi (Manipur), 50 KG Nikhat Zareen (Arunachal Pradesh), 52 KG Lalfakzuali (Mizoram), 54 KG Pinki Kachari (Assam), 57 KG Neeraj Bala (Punjab), 60 KG S Marathamma (Arunachal Pradesh), 63 KG Laxmi Wagh (Maharashtra).