Aruna Mishra: Knockout performance

Jamshedpur, Sept. 25: When it comes to sports, this young lady never gives up without a fight.

Twenty-four-year-old Aruna Mishra has come a long way — from kho kho, kabaddi, handball, athletics to boxing, which she considers her calling. This strongly-built pugilist, who knocked out her rivals in the training-cum-competition tour in Italy recently, is optimistic about clinching the gold at the coming Asian Boxing Championship.

“My Italian opponents were taller than I. At first I thought I would lose the bout. But my team mates egged me on. After a couple of solid punches, I was on a song,” Aruna said after returning to the city from Italy yesterday. “My performance in Italy has made me confident. I will go all out to bag the gold at the Asian meet,” Aruna said. She won two gold medals in the 66-kg welterweight category in Italy. Aruna was part of a nine-member national women’s team who had been sent a training-cum-competition trip in a run-up to the Asian meet to be held in Haryana in November.

Laila Ali is her idol. “She’s great. I wish I could emulate her,” she added. She is new to boxing but has the ability to punch hard. “An Italian coach, who trained us, was so impressed with my punches that he advised me to go professional. He said Indian women carry more solid punches than their foreign counterparts,” said the BA Part I student of Jamshedpur Women’s College, who was given the University Blue honour this year.

Hard worker that she is, Aruna never misses her training stint at the JRD Tata Sports Complex boxing centre. “I am thankful to Tata Steel sports department chief Satish Pillai for his support. I am also indebted to my coaches, E. Lakra and B.K. Jena.” she said.

A silver medal in the 66-kg welter category in her debut bout in the 2001 Punjab National Games, set Aruna on track. She bagged the gold (63-kg welter weight) in the Senior National Boxing Championship in Aizawl. Her proudest moment came with a bronze medal in the Akhmet Comert Boxing Meet in Istanbul in April. “It was my first international bout and I had butterflies in my stomach. But when I took the ring my nervousness vanished,” Aruna said. Aruna hopes that the state government will offer her a police job to meet her sports-related expenses.