Sonia Lather

Sonia Lather is an Indian woman amateur boxer born on 10th February 1992. She hails from the Jind district of Haryana. She represents India internationally in the 57 kg Featherweight category.

Background

Sonia Lather was born to Prem Singh and Nirmal Devi. She belongs to a humble family staying in a village in the Jind district, where her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife. She has two sisters and a brother.

Sonia had played Kabaddi and Wrestling initially before switching to Boxing at the age of 16. She chose boxing to vent out and manage her anger, but eventually, she saw the passion in it and pursued the sport seriously.

She comes from a district conservative in nature and therefore she faced stigma and bigotry because girls there aren’t allowed either to pursue a career in sports or studies. She was also subjected to social bullying in her village as women are restricted to involve in contact sports. Despite all these humiliations, she didn’t let herself discourage from pursuing boxing as she had the strong backing of her parents.

She has been training under Anoop Kumar since 2008. Anoop has been a part of the national boxing camp since 2001. She is currently employed with Railways State Promotion Board.

Rise to Glory

Sonia Lather's first career breakthrough came in 2009 when she won the Gold medal in the 51kg category at the Youth Women National Boxing Championships in Calangute, Goa. A year later, she defended her Gold medal in Aizawl, Mizoram.

In 2010, she bagged the Gold medal in the 51kg category at the inaugural edition of the Youth Women Haryana and State Boxing Championships. That year, Sonia won her first national medal by winning Gold at the Federation Cup Women Boxing Championships in Uttarakhand, followed that by a Gold medal at the Senior Women National Boxing Championships in Thrissur, Kerala.

In 2012, Sonia clinched her first senior state Gold medal at the Senior Women Haryana State Boxing Championships in Yamunanagar. In 2018, she represented Railways Sports Promotion Board at the Senior Women National Boxing Championships and won the Gold medal in the Featherweight category by defeating Haryana’s Sashi Chopra in Vijayanagar, Bengaluru.

Major Achievements

Sonia’s first international accomplishment was in 2012 when she won the Silver medal in the 54kg Bantamweight category at the Asian Women’s Amateur Boxing Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Subsequently, in May, she competed at the Women’s World Boxing Championships but exited from the competition after losing to Germany’s Elena Walendzik in the 1st Round.

In 2016, Sonia caught the limelight when she won the Silver medal in the 57kg Featherweight at the Women’s World Boxing Championships at Astana in Kazakhstan. Before reaching the final, she won the pre-quarterfinal, quarterfinal, and semi-final bouts by 3-0 each. The following year, she won the Silver medal in the 57kg Featherweight at the Asian Women’s Amateur Boxing Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

At the 2018 Asian Games, Sonia received byes in the early rounds before losing to Jo Son-Hwa in the quarterfinal of the 57kg featherweight category.

Sonia Lather is currently looking to secure an Olympics berth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics through the qualification tournament.