Ankushita Boro shines bright at AIBA World Youth Championship

Ankushita reached the light welterweight (64 kg) semi-finals of the AIBA World Youth Championship defeating Italy’s Rebecca Nicoli and now faces Thailand’s Saksri Thanchanok on Friday. Ankushita’s parents Rakesh Kumar and Ranjita will once again travel from their village Megaai Gairrrani to watch their daughter fight.

“Nobody knows about boxing in and around my village. I started on the insistence of my cousin who took me to SAI, Golaghat for trials in 2012. I stayed at the hostel as I could not travel alone. If my mother would have travelled to Golaghat to take me home, that would have meant an extra Rs 100 bus ticket. My father works on probation at Borbil ME School and does not get a regular salary. Whatever they earn is through farming and when they come to see me fight on Friday, I want to enter the final and win the gold medal like Sakshi did at the World Junior Championship in 2015,” Ankushita shared.

After giving trials at the SAI, Golaghat, she stayed at the hostel for three years under coach Borjen Bora before her selection in the Assam Boxing Academy under coach Tradeep Bora in Guwahati.

A best boxer award at the district level in 2013 was followed by a state gold in 2015 and the youngster also won a bronze medal in the first youth nationals held in Delhi early this year.

“My husband has been working as a primary teacher on probation in the school for more than a decade and sometime he gets minimal salary, that too after a long delay. We stay with my father as we cannot afford to pay rent. Ankushita wanted us to watch the bout and we arranged Rs 7,000 out of our savings and hired a mini bus for our relatives to see the bout. Now she has won again, we will again hire a bus to see her bout and if she wins the gold medal, it will be like a festival at our home,” said 36-year-old Ranjita.

Training under coach Tradeep Bora for the last two years, Ankushita made it to the national youth camp in April this year and has won a silver at the Balkan International Boxing Championship in Sofia and Ahmet Comert Championships in Turkey in the last two months. A shift to 64kg from her usual 60kg category earlier this year has been followed by training in Bhopal and Delhi under national chief youth coach Bhaskar Chandra Bhatt, who rates her highly.

“Yeh ladki sangharsh karna janti hai. If her entire focus remains on boxing, nobody can stop her. Her biggest strength is her light footwork, which made boxers like Muhammed Ali excel,” the chief coach said.

As for Ankushita, a medal here would also ensure a cash award, which would also see her helping her parents.

“My younger sisters like sweaters a lot. Last time I went to Kazakhstan, I saved some money from our daily allowance and got them sweaters. At our home, two rooms are made of cement while my parents’ room and ours are made of bamboo and mud. If I win a gold medal here, I will use the money to get those rooms cemented. That will be the biggest gift to my family,” she added.