Laishram Sarita Devi won a world title in front of a home crowd in New Delhi in 2006 and spent the best part of two decades as one of India’s most consistent women boxers. She collected five Asian Championship golds across four weight classes, a Commonwealth Games silver and an Asian Games bronze, and she remained in the ring well into her late thirties.
Name: Laishram Sarita Devi | Born: 1 March 1982, Khunou, Thoubal district, Manipur | Sport: Boxing | Event: Women’s amateur boxing, flyweight to lightweight
Growing up in Thoubal
Sarita was born in Khunou in Manipur’s Thoubal district, the sixth of eight children in a farming family. As a girl she collected firewood and worked in the fields with her parents, and she has often said that this hard physical work built her stamina. Her father died when she was 13. She went to Waithou Mapal High School and later Bal Baidya Mandir in Thoubal, and completed her higher secondary studies through open schooling so that she could keep up with her training.
She first tried martial arts. Her early encounter with boxing, an informal sparring session at the Sports Authority of India centre in Imphal, did not go well, but Dingko Singh’s gold at the 1998 Asian Games persuaded her to take up the sport seriously. She began competing in 2000.
Asian golds across four weight classes
Progress was quick. Sarita won silver in the featherweight division at the 2001 Asian Championships in Bangkok, then gold in the bantamweight class at Hisar in 2003 and Kaohsiung in 2005. She added Asian titles at light bantamweight in Guwahati in 2008, at flyweight in Astana in 2010 and at lightweight in Ulaanbaatar in 2012.
Her first World Championship medal was a bantamweight bronze in Podolsk, Russia, in 2005. Manipur Police offered her the post of sub-inspector after that result, and in February 2010 she was promoted to deputy superintendent.
World champion in New Delhi
The 2006 Women’s World Championships were held in New Delhi, and India finished with four golds. Sarita’s came at 52kg, where she beat Viktoria Rudenko of Ukraine in the final. Mary Kom, Jenny R. L. and Lekha K. C. won the other three titles for the host nation. Sarita returned to the podium at the 2008 World Championships in Ningbo with a bronze. The Government of India gave her the Arjuna Award in 2009.
Motherhood and a return to the ring
After the birth of her son, Tomthil, Sarita came back to competition at lightweight (60kg). At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow she reached the final and lost 1-3 to Shelley Watts of Australia, taking silver. She has spoken about coming through a ligament injury and doctors’ advice to stop boxing during this period. She is married to Thoiba Singh.
The Incheon semi-final and its aftermath
At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Sarita won her first two bouts 3-0 and met South Korea’s Park Ji-na in the lightweight semi-final on 30 September. The judges gave the bout to Park 3-0. The Indian team lodged a protest, which the AIBA technical committee rejected.
At the medal ceremony Sarita declined to accept her bronze and placed it in Park’s hands, and the medal was left on the podium afterwards. She later accepted the medal after a hearing with the Olympic Council of Asia. In December 2014 the AIBA banned her for one year, ending in October 2015, and fined her 1,000 Swiss francs. Her coaches were also suspended, with the Cuban coach B. I. Fernandez receiving a two-year ban.
Rio bid, professional bouts and later years
Sarita returned after the ban and tried to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics. At the World Championships in Astana in May 2016 she lost 0-3 to Mexico’s Victoria Torres in the second round, ending her Olympic hopes. In January 2017 she made her professional debut at the Khuman Lampak Indoor Stadium in Imphal, beating Zsofia Bedo of Hungary by unanimous decision over five rounds.
She went back to the amateur ranks and kept winning medals. She took bronze at the Asian Championships in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017 and again in Bangkok in 2019, and won the senior national title in Rohtak in 2018. In 2019 she was elected unopposed as the only Asian member of the AIBA’s first Athletes’ Commission. She also runs the Sarita Regional Boxing Academy, whose pupils have fought at state and national level.
Career record and honours
- World Championships: gold, 52kg, New Delhi 2006; bronze, Podolsk 2005; bronze, Ningbo 2008
- Asian Championships: gold, Hisar 2003, Kaohsiung 2005, Guwahati 2008, Astana 2010 and Ulaanbaatar 2012; silver, Bangkok 2001; bronze, Ho Chi Minh City 2017 and Bangkok 2019
- Commonwealth Games: silver, lightweight, Glasgow 2014
- Asian Games: bronze, lightweight, Incheon 2014
- Senior national champion, Rohtak 2018
- Professional debut: win over Zsofia Bedo, Imphal, January 2017
- Arjuna Award, 2009
- Member, AIBA Athletes’ Commission, elected 2019
- Deputy superintendent, Manipur Police (promoted 2010)
