World Boxing Championships: ‘Polish coaches were clapping even when Jaismine was scoring to misguide her,’ says India coach

“We told her to take the lead in the first round. She tried and we thought she had it but the judges ruled 2-3 in the favour of the Polish boxer,” Indian coach D Chandralal told The Indian Express.

The early setback forced Jaismine to be more aggressive in the second round. “We told her that she needs to start attacking from the first minute in order to come back into the contest,” said Chandralal. “She landed a good number of clean scoring blows and the second round ended 5-0 in our favour.”

It was a turnaround for Jaismine, who has a history of losing bouts after winning the first round or going inexplicably defensive. But she didn’t give Julia any opportunity.

Now with a gold, Jaismine carries a similar target on her back that boxers like Nikhat and Lovlina have had to deal with for years. (Photo: World Boxing)

With a lead to preserve in the final round, the Indian was told to just move around while capitalising on her height advantage. “She was asked to keep moving and that’s what she did. Move and attack when there is an opening to maintain a slight edge in the final round,” explained the coach.

He also pointed at the gamesmanship resorted to by his Polish counterparts to throw Jaismine off her game.

“When Jasmine was scoring, the Polish coaches were also clapping as if their boxer was scoring points. They were trying to misguide Jaismine but she kept a cool head and played with patience,” Chandralal said.

Solid campaign

Jaismine has clearly been the best Indian boxer at the World Championships. She dominated an Olympic category defeating an Olympic medallist. It was not just the wins, but also the way she won. All four of her wins before the final were by unanimous decisions.

“She played really well in an Olympic category. The Polish boxer is the current Olympic silver medallist and before that, Jaismine defeated Venezuela’s Alcala Segovia, an Olympian, in the semi-finals. Earlier, it was the second seed Brazilian Romeu Jucielen in the second round. She defeated most of the boxers by a 5-0 margin,” said Chandralal. “Getting a gold medal in the Olympic weight category and defeating all the opponents by unanimous point verdict. All credits to her.”

India can have another World Champion, but in a non-Olympic category, when Minakshi Hooda takes on Nazym Kyzaibay of Uzbekistan in the 48kg final later on Sunday.

Pritish Raj works with sports team at The Indian Express' and is based out of New Delhi. ... Read More

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More

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