Pooja Rani Bohra
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YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
As in 2021
Tridib Baparnash, July 20, 2021: The Times of India
Despite her father’s initial hesitation at letting her pick a traditionally maledominated sport, and despite her doctor’s advice to undergo a surgery on her injured shoulder, boxer Pooja Rani Bohra decided to carve her own path and walk on without flinching. Over the years she has battled numerous odds to eventually qualify for her maiden Olympics.
Reigning Asian champion, a proud owner of six national titles and an Asian Games bronze in her bag, boxer Pooja needs no introduction. What makes her journey from the cradle of Indian boxing in Haryana’s Bhiwani to Tokyo fascinating is her perseverance and the willpower she has shown to bounce back stronger every time life has posed tough questions.
Fresh from a clinical 5-0 win over Mavluda Movlonova of Uzbekistan in the women’s 75kg class for her second successive Asian Championship crown (after the 81kg title in the 2019 edition), followed by a month-long training camp in Italy, Pooja looks set for the real deal in the Japanese capital. Pooja’s win over world champion Atheyna Bylon in March this year at the Boxam International Tournament in Spain, where she won a silver, testifies her growing dominance in the middleweight category, but the 30-year-old prefers to remain grounded.
“There can’t be a favourite in any category since the best boxers qualify for the Olympics. In my category, there are boxers like Li Qian (China), Tamara Thibaut (Canada), Melissa Naomi Graham (USA) and Ariane Fortin (Netherlands), who can be lethal on their day,” Pooja told TOI.
Pooja, however, didn’t mind revealing the secret of the increase in her speed and sharpness in technique in the last couple of years, despite the pandemic affecting training and sparring sessions.
“In the past one year or so, I did numerous sparring sessions with male boxers of various weight categories, ranging from 69kg to 81kg during my stay at IIS. To match their speed, I had to lift myself up and that helped sharpen my movements. The training sessions in Italy, France and Ireland also helped a lot,” she said.
After missing out on 2016 Rio Olympics qualification following a second-round exit at the World Championships, Pooja suffered burns on her hands while bursting Diwali crackers. That left her out for six months. Pooja admitted that her confidence was shaken, more so after sustaining a career-threatening shoulder injury on return.
While Pooja is now past her “lowest phase,” she conceded that the period helped her analyse her career graph. She made up her mind to opt for physiotherapy instead of a surgery for a quicker comeback.
On return, she switched to the 81kg category, considering there were lesser number of Indian participants, but it was at the Indian women’s team’s high performance director Raffaele Bergamasco’s insistence that she returned to her pet 75kg class to seek qualification for the Games.
“When I was coming back after the shoulder injury and the burnt hand, I decided to switch to 81kg since not too many Indians compete in it. After the 2019 gold, Raffaele asked me to get back to 75kg to try and qualify for Tokyo,” she said.
KNOW POOJA RANI
Won back-to-back gold medals at the 2019 and 2021 Asian Boxing Championships.
She was bronze medallist at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
She idolises, among others, American boxing legend Claressa Shields.
