Athlete of the Month – Peamwilai Laopeam of Thailand

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Athlete of the Month – Peamwilai Laopeam

The Asian Boxing Confederation’s third Facebook voting for the Athlete of the Month delivered a success to Thailand’s Peamwilai Laopeam who claimed silver medal in the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan at the Olympic Flyweight class (51 kg) and qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as first Thai woman boxer.

Peamwilai Laopeam was born on October 20 in 1983 and began boxing short after women boxing was launched in Thailand. Her first success was a gold medal at the first women boxing tournament of the Southeast Asian Games in Korat, Thailand in 2007 where she was able to outpoint Philippines’ Ronijen Sofla in the final.

The Thai boxer demonstrated her power in the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Hanoi, Vietnam where she won the Featherweight class (57 kg) after beating India’s Nagisetty Usha in the gold medal bout. Laopeam attended in her first ever AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados in 2010 where she won three difficult contest at the Flyweight class (51 kg) and defeated US star Marlen Esparza as well and only China’s three-time AIBA Women’s World Champion Ren Cancan was able to stop her in the quarter-finals.

Laopeam competed in the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010, in the 2012 ASBC Asian Confederation Women’s Boxing Championships in Ulaanbaatar and also in the 2012 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships but she was not enough lucky in the drawing and met with world star opponents in her opening contests. She could not qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games but she decided to continue her career at least until 2016. In the new Olympic era she won the Southeast Asian Games fourth-time in 2013 and claimed several other medals from various international events.

Peamwilai Laopeam fought for the gold medal of the 2015 ASBC Asian Confederation Women’s Boxing Championships with Philippines’ AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships silver medallist Nesthy Petecio in the Bantamweight class (54 kg). Both boxers were not in top shape at the Southeast Asian Games in Singapore previously but they were able to advance to the finals in Wulanchabu. Philippines and Thailand are the old rivals in the Southeast Asian region therefore both boxers knew each other well enough. Petecio controlled the first part of the bout and looked she will be the winner of their close bout but Laopeam’s jabs were even more successful in the second part of the bout which ended with narrow Thai triumph which was her career highlight until 2015.

Peamwilai Laopeam moved down to the Olympic category and qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with her strong performance in the 9th AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan. She eliminated Morocco’s AIBA African Olympic Qualification Event winner Zohra Ez-Zahraoui, Poland’s Baku 2015 European Games silver medallist Sandra Drabik and France’s veteran Sarah Ourahmoune and advanced to the final where she met with Great Britain’s London 2012 Olympic Champion Nicola Adams.

Laopeam was not enough fresh in the gold medal bout as in the semi-finals but her stamina was excellent in the difficult final which was won by the British veteran star. Kazakhstan’s Zhaina Shekerbekova claimed bronze medal in this weight class and also qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games while Laopeam reached her career highlight in Astana with her silver and named as the Best Asian Boxer of the Month.