Late starter, Hawa Singh boxing academy's trainee Pooja shines again for the country, defends her Asian title 

She picked up the gloves quite late, in the last year of her teens, but that didn't stop Pooja Rani dreaming big in the sport. 

A trainee of a Bhiwani-based academy named after legendary boxer Hawa Singh, run by his son Sanjay Sheron, Pooja is the only Indian woman boxer, who could manage to finish at top of the podium in the ongoing  Asian Championship  in Dubai. 

The 30-year-old Bhiwani boxer defended her Asian title in the 75kg weight category on Sunday night. In the final, she defeated Uzbekistan boxer Mavluda Movlonova. 

In the women's section of the Asian meet,  India won one gold, three silver and six bronze. 

Pooja's boxing journey started from Hawa Singh Boxing Academy. "Pooja was a student of my wife, who is into academics. She was a BA first-year student in a college in Bhiwani, where my wife was a lecturer, and because of Pooja's height and physique, she pursued her to join boxing and brought her to the academy in 2009. And as they say, the rest is history," says Sanjay. "Initially Pooja's father was against her joining the sport and for atleast six months, she didn't disclose to her father about pursuing the sport. I really had a tough time to convince her father to let her live her dreams."

Pooja had also won bronze in 2014 Asian Games and competed in the Commonwealth Games.

Earlier, during the qualification events for the Tokyo Olympics, Pooja (75kg) had the credit of becoming the first Indian woman boxer to qualify for the Tokyo Games. Later Mary Kom (51kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) also got the Olympic tickets. There will be four boxers in women's  section, who will be representing India in Tokyo.