Two childhood friends winning World titles is rare. Doing a repeat of it is rarer.
Nitu and Sakshi Choudhary of Dhanana village in Bhiwani district of Haryana have achieved this feat by securing their second gold medals in the World youth boxing championships in Budapest.
Since the previous World championships in Guwahati last year, the two friends have come a long way to come up with excellent performances inside the ring.
“My technical side has improved since the last World championships.
“Besides, I am doing well on speed now. I was confident of taking the gold again,” said Nitu, who retained her 48kg title in Budapest.
“However, this time the competition was tougher.”
Sakshi, who had bagged the 54kg crown in Guwahati, agreed.
“Last year we had home support. But I was confident because of good training and familiarity with my competitors,” said Sakshi.
Sakshi, who had below par performances in the Asian championships and an event in Serbia earlier this year, said adding edge to her attack helped her claim the 57kg gold.
Women’s chief coach Bhaskar Bhatt said the Dhanana duo could make it big in future. “Nitu has the maturity now, while Sakshi knows how to revive herself from difficult situations. They are on the right track.
“Other boxers also did well. We could win two gold, two silver (Anamika 51kg and Manisha 64kg) and four bronze medals (Jony 60kg, Astha 75kg, Sakshi Gaidhani 81kg and Neha Yadav +81kg). International exposure has helped these girls,” said Bhatt.
The men boxers might have returned bronze medals through Bhavesh (52kg) and Ankit (60kg), but chief coach G. Manoharan insisted that the bunch that fought in the World youth event looked promising.
