Podcast: Sarita Devi Reminisces Her 2006 World Championship Gold

Listen to India’s veteran boxer Sarita Devi speak about her 2006 World Championship gold.

India’s veteran boxer Sarita Devi speaks about her 2006 World Championship gold. 

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

Indian women's boxing is long associated with MC Mary Kom but Sarita Devi is another star from Manipur who has achieved the highs of a World Championship Gold.

In this episode of The Greatest Game we bring Sarita into the spotlight to talk about the biggest day of her career. The year was 2006 and the World Championship was being hosted by India for the first time.

Sarita Devi spoke about how excited she was to compete in front of her home crowd.

We had a chance to compete in the World C’ship in India for the first time. I was very excited to fight in front of my family at home. Indians came to the arena to watch the matches. It felt very good. I used to get motivated when I heard the crowd shout ‘India, India’.

Sarita Devi

Sarita was even more motivated to win the gold because her mother was watching the match in the arena.

I always remember one thing that my mother was watching the final from the gallery. Whenever I got a punch, my mother would close her eyes. She couldn’t see me getting hit. She, being a mother was getting hurt each time a punch came my way. Then I thought my mother is watching me that’s why I needed to beat Ukraine’s Viktoria Rudenko.

Sarita Devi