ASBC Heroes – India’s unbeaten ASBC Asian Women’s Youth Champion Poonam is aiming for an Olympic title in the future

India’s Poonam, who spent her first year among the youth boxers, won the bantamweight (54kg) at the Ulaanbaatar 2019 ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships which was the third final in Mongolia’s capital. India’s next woman sensation Poonam impressed in several other international events and became our ASBC Hero in 2019.

Poonam was born in Hisar, Haryana on July 15 in 2002 and began her boxing career at the age of 12 in 2014. She trains with coach Mr. Marender Singh Dhaka in Hisar 24 hours per week to reach her goals which will be coming soon in the next Olympic era. The 167cm tall boxer’s idols are Sonia Lather Singh and Vasyl Lomachenko and she loves to eat Rasgulla which is a famous Indian dessert.

Poonam won her first regional event the Haryana State Sub-Junior Championships already in 2014 and she defended her title also in 2015 and in 2016. Her first international competition was the Nations Women’s Junior Cup in Serbia on January 2018 where she won the title of the bantamweight (54kg).

Poonam amazed also in several other international competitions especially at the Junior Nations Cup, at the Boxam Youth Tournament, at the Golden Gloves of Vojvodina Youth Tournament in the recent two years. She defeated all of her strong Russian, French, Kazakh, Latvian, Croatian, Italian, Serbian and Danish rivals on these international events.

The 2019 edition of the Indian Women’s Youth National Championships was held in the city of Rudrapur where Poonam was the top favourite of her category. The U17 National Games winner Poonam had to beat five opponents to be crowned in Rudrapur but she managed to win all of these contests at the bantamweight (54kg). The 17-year-old talent was too strong for Suntia Roka and Rajasthan’s Arshi Khanan in the final stages of the national event.

The Indian women’s youth team contains high number of boxers who were born in 2002 and could be competing also in this age group in 2020 and in the 2021 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships. One of the most successful Indian female youth boxers was Poonam in 2019 who amazed once again but already in the continental level.

The Indian bantamweight (54kg) boxer stopped Philippines’ Ailene Kaye Caranagan and eliminated Mongolia’s Battur Zoljargal during her road to the title bout at the Ulaanbaatar 2019 ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships. The Hisar-based Indian met for the title with China’s Cai Weiqi who is a newcomer in the international stage but she had the speed and technical skills to beat the best ones as well. Poonam landed tough shots in the second round and the referee had to count Cai which determined the final result and the Indian success in Mongolia’s capital.

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