Tokyo Olympians – Japan’s 20-year-old female talent Sena Irie

The Tokyo Olympic Games is ahead of us the re-scheduled event will be held in Japan between July 23 and August 8. The Asian Boxing Confederation introduces our quota holders firstly the women boxers who qualified already to Tokyo through the Asian & Oceanian Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event which was held in Amman, Jordan on March 2020.

Japan’s Sena Irie was born in Yonago City in Tottori Prefecture on October 9 in 2000 and began boxing as a small child at the age of 8. She trains seriously hard, around 35 hours per week with coach Masanori Asamura in the Boxing Club of Nippon Sport Science University. Hozumi Hasegawa and Olympic Champion Ryota Murata are her idols in boxing and she likes reading books in her free time.

Sena Irie won her first national events in 2016 and following those gold medals, she attended at the Guwahati 2017 AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships. She defeated her Mongolian and Polish rivals in Guwahati before eventual winner Sakshi Choudhary stopped her in the semi-finals.

Following her first bronze, Irie repeated that performance at the Bangkok 2018 ASBC Asian Women’s Boxing Championships. Japan’s new sensation qualified for the Budapest 2018 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships where she defeated two tough Europeans as England’s Elyse Glynn and Slovakia’s EUBC European Youth Champion Jessica Triebelova. She was defeated by Croatia’s Nikolina Cacic but Irie’s third youth bronze medal proved her excellent talent.

Sena Irie won her first All Japan Elite National Championships in the end of 2018 which guaranteed her place in the team which attended at the Bangkok 2019 ASBC Asian Women’s Boxing Championships. She was only 18 by the time of the event in Thailand where she opened with a big sensation, defeated Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio in the first preliminary round. Irie reached the quarter-finals in the Asian continental event and also at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Ulan-Ude.

Irie eliminated New Zealand’s Amy Andrew, Philippines’ defending AIBA Women’s World Champion Nesthy Petecio and South Korea’s Im Ae Ji during her road to the finals of the featherweight (57kg). Japan’s 20-year-old sensation lost to Chinese Taipei’s AIBA Women’s World Champion Lin Yu Ting in the final in Amman but qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games with her silver medal.

Personal biography
Name: Sena Irie
Country : Japan
Gender : Woman
Date of birth : 09/10/2000
Height : 164cm
Weight category : 57kg
Residence : Tokyo
Stance : Orthodox
Best achievements:
2020 – Asian & Oceanian Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event (Amman, JOR) – Silver
2019 – AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships (Ulan-Ude, RUS) – 5th place
2019 – ASBC Asian Women’s Boxing Championships (Bangkok, THA) – 5th place
2018 – AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships (Budapest, HUN) – Bronze
2018 – ASBC Asian Women’s Youth Boxing Championships (Bangkok, THA) – Bronze
2017 – AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships (Guwahati, IND) – Bronze

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