Women Boxers In India: With This Ring
<cite>With This Ring</cite> is an independent documentary film by Ameesha Joshi and Anna Sarkissian. Since 2006, they’ve been tracking the Indian Women’s National Boxing Team, who are some of the best boxers in the world.
Archive of August, 2009
Written by
anna
August 31, 2009
http://www.vimeo.com/6344027
Ever wonder what it’s like to train with the Indian Women’s National Boxing Team? Wonder no more. We have compressed one of their gruelling 90-minute circuit training sessions into just 90 seconds.
The images were filmed at their training camp in Visakhapatnam, Andra Pradesh, last July. The clip features one of their coaches, Mr. Bhatt, who is incredibly demanding but still has a great sense of humour. We shared many laughs with Mr. Bhatt over the daily “steambath rating” in the training hall.
If their movements appears sluggish at times, keep in mind that it’s about 45 degrees in that gym and they’ve been up since 5 a.m. sprinting around the track. We were drenched in sweat merely watching them work.
We’re rolling out clips every few weeks, so come back for more.
Also, don’t miss this article on the Sepia Mutiny blog about our documentary (plus a lively discussion in the comments section).
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Category : Blogroll
Written by
anna
August 29, 2009
The video is only in Hindi, our apologies.
Big news in the world of women’s boxing. But we’ll get to that. This afternoon in New Delhi, President Pratibha Patil presented our homegirl Mary Kom with India’s top prize for athletic achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Khel Ratna translates as “Sports Gem.” It’s as good as it gets for Indian athletes and is quite the honour. So while the Indian populace is still unfamiliar with her successes, this is certainly a step in the right direction.
Mary has been quite vocal in recent years about the lack of recognition for women’s boxing. After winning her fourth world championship last year in China, she became the most successful amateur boxer in history.
The Khel Ratna is generally bestowed upon one athlete and sometimes two. For the first time this year, Olympic bronze medalists Vijender Singh (boxing) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling) were also honoured. Singh became a veritable superstar in the year following the Beijing games and is currently ranked second in the world. Close, but no cigar Vijender.
Meanwhile, our gal Sarita Devi (2006 world champion, ahem!) was at the ceremony to receive the Arjuna Award for sporting excellence. The Arjuna is given to the best athlete in each discipline. She too remarked that the recognition was coming a little late but was very grateful nonetheless. Her husband was reportedly beaming. More about Sarita’s prize and how she took up this “manly sport” here.
Congratulations to Mary and Sarita!
More Mary news:
- She’s got a “zingy” new haircut!
- Her boxing academy has 16 trainees.
- Mary prays for peace in Manipur and starts preparing for London 2012.
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Category : Blogroll
Written by
anna
August 27, 2009
Our boxers Mary and Preeti are making headlines in the New York Times!
And there’s Mary on Jezebel:
Oh, and they’re heading to the Olympics in 2012. I’d say it’s been a pretty good week overall.
(Thanks Deb for sending the NY Times article our way)
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Written by
anna
August 7, 2009
Well, maybe not this town. But she emailed us to say that she was in Burnaby, British Columbia, to participate in the 2009 World Police & Fire Games the first week of August.
Not familiar with the games? Well, it’s a “spectacular international sporting event, offering police officers, firefighters, customs and correction officers from around the world an opportunity to showcase their athletic excellence in over 65 sporting events.”
You might recall that Sarita was offered a position with the police force in her home state of Manipur when she started winning medals for India. The government rewards successful athletes with stable employment.
And Sarita didn’t disappoint. In BC, she took home the gold, of course. In the photo below, Sarita lays the smackdown on her competition. (Smushdown? Weak joke, I know.)
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