Jaismine Lamboria, Arundhati Choudhary eye Paris Olympics berths
Mental scars take time to heal. The pounding that Jaismine Lamboria and Arundhati Choudhary received from their opponents at the Asian Games was still fresh in their minds. But it made the two young boxers work on their mindset and come out stronger in the ring.
While the Asian Games were a missed opportunity for both — having failed to seal a quota place for the Olympics — they would need to find a way to put it behind them if they harboured dreams of qualifying for Paris.
And, last week, they showed India a glimpse of what that future may be like. At the Senior National Championships, Jaismine and Arundhati won the national titles in 60kg and 66kg weight categories.
They will now be part of the evaluation process for selection in the Indian team for the Olympic qualifiers in Italy from February 29. Indian women boxers have won four Olympic quotas in Hangzhou and only two slots remain to be grabbed.
In the 60kg category, Jaismine will have a fight in her hand against Tokyo Olympian Simranjit Kaur, who has rediscovered her form as was evident in the final of national championships.
“It is not going to be easy either for Jaismine or Simranjit at the world qualifiers,” says Sarita Devi who watched them at the national championships. “The lightweight is one of the most difficult weight categories and you will have the world’s best boxers coming to Italy,” says the former international who has competed in the weight class.
“Jaismine needs to have more power in her punches and step up her attack. Simranjit has experience but she has to bring more variety in her attack. I have spoken to her on what changes she needs to bring,” said Sarita, now a coach.
Jaismine has shown potential in a short time but the Asian Games loss was an eye-opener. The Commonwealth Games bronze winner was pummeled by North Korean Won Ungyong in the quarter-finals and lost through an RSC decision.
“It was the first time that I got a warning in the ring and before I could gather myself, I was facing a standing count. It shook me. I did not know how to handle such a situation. I came back and spoke to my coaches and they told me that I need to be strong. I am working with a psychologist,” said Jaismine.
Hanghzhou brings back somewhat similar memories for Arundhati. The two-time world youth champion was overwhelmed by the occasion. Facing world champion China’s Yang Liu in her very first bout, she ran out of ideas. The result was a dominant 0-5 win for the Chinese.
“I was confident going into the Asian Games but my first bout was against China in their backyard. To be honest I went blank in the ring. My opponent was taller and stronger. Maybe, I did lot of overthinking. The lesson for me is that it doesn’t matter whoever is your opponent, you can’t be so hopeless,” confessed Arundhati.
The 20-year-old is still new to the senior international circuit. She has shown courage by competing in 66kg, dropping almost 10kgs. In doing so, the youngster is avoiding Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain, who is, at the moment, too good in the middleweight category
“My body weight was 77.4kg. It was a big reduction in my weight and I did not want any physical problems. But I wanted to take the risk. At the Army Sports Institute, the coaches helped me a lot. I was training full week, maintaining a strict diet and I am fitter than before.”
The tall Arundhati packs enough power in her punches and that was there to see in the final against Ankushita Boro. Ankushita, the Asian Championships medallist, also gave a good account of herself and is expected to throw a strong challenge at Arundhati at the national camp.
