Irma Testa enchants: she is gold at the boxing world championships

A diva in the ring. Irma Testa is world champion, she conquers that gold medal that she had eluded her last in the final in Istanbul against Yu Ting Lin from Taiwan. The Kazakh Ibragimova, a lefty to take with a grain of salt (it is no coincidence that she had bent the Taiwanese in the semifinal) challenged her on the same field as hers, that of technical ability, mobility in the ring, choice of tempo.

But in Delhi, however, Irma lived up to her alias, Butterfly. She danced, she used the left jab with the naturalness of a great in the ring, she doubled with the right only when she served, she even acted – like a diva -, taking care to report the hits to the jury. And the jury accepted without causing trouble. Five to zero net, even in the partials: 30-27 with the exception of the Serbian judge, who only saw a 29-28 for the blue. But it’s a detail. For Irma it is the umpteenth coronation. She is the first Italian at the Olympics, she is both to participate and to take a medal (bronze), she is the European champion, now the world champion. Only the top step of the podium is missing in Paris, and the doors of the boxing legend will definitely open for her.

Sirine Chaarabi was defeated in the final, but the beautiful smile exhibited on the podium by the girl born in Tunisia and who became Italian after a much desired and tormented journey, says a lot about her world championship. She lost to Wu, a Chinese less technically gifted and with a shorter reach, but much more experienced (28 to 23, in these contexts count). Wu brought Sirine into his swampy, grumpy but effective boxing. The blue tried to box in line but she succeeded in an acceptable way only in the first round.