It was her maiden international event and didn’t she do the country proud! City girl Gonella Niharika won the silver medal in the 70 kg category of the AIBA Women’s Junior and Youth Boxing Championship in Taipei on Saturday. She lost to Russia’s Anastasia Sigaeva in the final.
“I am delighted to win my first big medal in the international circuit. It gives me a lot of confidence to dream big and work really hard,” was her first reaction to her win. “I am not going to relax with this performance. I want to keep winning major events,” she said.
It’s truly an achievement for the Hyderabadi, given that it has come a mere two years after she took to the sport. It was all the more sweet for her father, G. Sreeram (Vigilance Inspector in Telangana Transco) who is going all out to see that his daughters (Niharika’s sister Gonella Naganika lost in the quarter-final of the super heavy weight category in the same championship) make a mark in the world of sports.
The boxer won the medal at the AIBA Women’s Junior and Youth Boxing Championship in Taipei
