Mumbai: Parveen Hooda’s little diary, her confidant through thick and thin of medal-winning highs and suspension-serving lows, was put to use again in Aichi the night before her Asian Games final bout.
” Medals toh pehle bhi kaafi aaye hai (I’ve won a lot of medals before). “But I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to drool over it, and thought if I keep sitting on this, even the Asian Games won’t go well. Had I stopped training during that phase, I would have lost mentally.
“Now, those same people are saying that we prayed for you and we knew you could do it! Especially since every other Indian woman boxer had a medal to flaunt in Glasgow. “Patience. “If you are going through really bad times, good times are bound to be around the corner. As long as you stay true to your dedication, work, and remain consistent. Lage rehna zaroori hai (you have to keep at it). Parveen wants to keep at it, with next year’s World Championships in focus. New threats like Russia’s European champion Azaliia Amineva are emerging in a category that still feels a bit new to her.
But this medal, after all the struggles I’ve been through, has a lot more value for me,” Parveen told HT. Parveen said, laughing. “Everyone had worked hard for it, so did I – maybe even a little extra since I had to gain a lot of weight for the new category,” said Parveen. That is the key,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to do,” said Parveen.
And so the pugilist got down to work. Technical and physical improvements were made, her Glasgow split decision defeat to Sacha Hickey was analysed in detail with women’s team coach Santiago Nieva, and a mindset shift of not being desperate to win set in motion. The biggest change, however, was in trusting her strengths. It came to the fore against reigning Asian Championships gold medallist Chen Nien-chin in the final. “In the CWG bout, if I had played my natural game, it would have gone in my favour. Since this was a new weight category for me, I was analysing my opponent a bit too much. I was thus not able to use my own strengths. At the Asian Games, I decided that I will play to my strengths, no matter the kind of opponent and game. I believed and backed my own game.”
