Jaismine, Shashi pack a punch

There are two things that Jaismine Lamboria has been working on since her quarter-final exit at the 2022 world championships: her attack and the power in her punches. And given the way she brought up her first victory at the worlds here against Beatrice Ambos Nyambega of Tanzania, the tall girl from Bhiwani will walk away knowing that her work has not gone to waste.

She was aggressive from the word go and dealt such heavy blows that it took just 1 min and 23sec to overpower her opponent in the 60kg weight category. Beatrice received standing counts twice and finally, the referee stopped the contest (round of 32).

Jaismine hardly broke a sweat as she blitzed through her bout. Since winning the bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Jaismine came through a tough phase. First, she was down with typhoid and then a shoulder injury kept her out of action.

“I had typhoid in October, then I had a shoulder injury and I could not take part in the National Championships,” she said.

After she was picked for the world championships squad, there was also a controversy with reigning national champion Poonam Poonia going to court against the decision. Jaismine, however, has started the tournament in fine form.

It has been a steady rise for the Bhiwani girl, who comes from a family of boxers. Jaismine’s father is a home guard, and it was her two uncles -- Parvinder and Sandeep Lamboria who introduced her to the sport. They also made sure that she gets all the facilities. She impressed in an open trial for the national camp in 2020 that saw her make it to the senior team. The rise has been quick from there. She won a bronze at the Asian Championships in 2021 and beat Tokyo Olympian Simranjeet Kaur in the trials for the World Championships.

At the Worlds in Istanbul, Jaismine won two bouts before losing a close quarterfinal contest against Rashida Ellis of the US. Ellis went on to win the championships.

“I learned a lot from the world championships loss. I needed to be more aggressive. I tend to play in the same rhythm. If a bout is going out of my hand, I realised I have to be aggressive and get more power in my punches. I worked on my game after the world championships last year and it has helped.”

She defeated world championships bronze medallist Parveen Hooda to book her ticket to Birmingham where she won a bronze medal.

“I am a long-range boxer and I used to defend and then attack. I realised I have to keep changing the pace when required, increase my aggression,” said Jaismine who will next fight Kazakhstan Mijgona Samadova.

In the other matches featuring Indians in the fray on the second day, Shashi Chopra defeated Mwangi Teresiah Wanjiru 5-0 in the 63kg round of 32. However, Shruti Yadav, a last-minute replacement for the injured Sanamacha Chanu in the squad lost to Zhou Pan 5-0 in 70kg. In the upset of the day, Wen Lu Yang of China defeated three-time worlds medallist Alessia Mesiano of Italy.

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