Shruti Yadav from Madhya Pradesh, who won the silver medal in the Elite Women's National Championships 2022, will take Chanu's place in the 70 kg category.
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Sanamacha Chanu, the National champion in the 70 kg weight class for women’s boxing, had to withdraw from the Women’s Boxing World Championships 2023 in New Delhi. This was owing to a concussion suffered during a sparring session just two days before the start of the event. Chanu, who hails from Manipur and has trained under the legendary Mary Kom, was looking forward to making her debut appearance in the World Championships. She wanted to continue the legacy of her mentor. She had expressed excitement about the competition and a desire to carry forward Mary Kom’s legacy. However, the injury proved to be a huge blow for Chanu and is now replaced by Shruti Yadav.
Sanamacha Chanu won the gold medal at the ASBC Asian Youth Men & Women Boxing Championship in Mongolia in 2019. In addition, she clinched the silver medal at the eighth Golden Gloves Vojvodina Youth Women in the same year. Some of her national accomplishments include Khelo India Youth Games 2020 in Guwahati, Khelo India Games 2018 in its inaugural edition, and so on.
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Unfortunately, the high-performance director Bernard Dunne and BFI officials decided against fielding Chanu after evaluating her health for one day. As a result, reserve boxer Shruti Yadav from Madhya Pradesh, who won the silver medal in the Elite Women’s National Championships 2022, will take Chanu’s place in the 70 kg category. Yadav will face off against Pan Zhou of China in the first round.
Shruti Yadav, the 23-year-old boxer, had also clinched the bronze medal in the recently held Strandja Memorial tournament. The event took place in Sofia, Bulgaria in the last month. In the Strandja Memorial, India had sent a second-string team to the championship to prepare better for the World Championships. As a result, Lovlina Borgohain and Nikhat Zareen weren’t a part of the squad.
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The Women’s World Boxing Championships 2023 are scheduled to take place from March 15 and run until March 26, 2023. New Delhi, India, is hosting the 13th edition of the competition. It is important to note that the championships are not offering any Olympic quotas. Also, the ongoing dispute between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Boxing Association (IBA) has led to many nations boycotting the event. The overall prize pool for the championships is $2.4 million.
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