From
YNet:
When talking about the world champions in Thailand-style kickboxing, one usually imagines tough Amazons who would gladly kick one's head or demonstrate a punch in the jaw at any
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| Sarah Avraham winning her medal |
given moment.
Well, two religious teenage girls are out to break that stereotype: The two Israelis, who combine training with Torah studies, won the Muay Thai world championship held in Bangkok several weeks ago.
Five times a week, Nili Block, 18, of Beit Shemesh, and Sarah Avraham, 18, of Kiryat Arba, replace their religious schoolgirl outfits with boxing gloves and sportswear and head to the boxing center at Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium.
The intensive training with a punching bag led them to the title of world champions: Nili defeated a Bulgarian opponents in the 51-54-kilogram (112-119-pound) class, while Sarah beat her British opponents in the 57-63.5-kilogram (125-140-pound) class.
The Big Chilli adds:
DEDICATED, motivated, strong, humble and fiercely competitive – these are all accurate descriptions of American-born Israeli athlete Nili Block. Add another word to that list of adjectives – multitalented. On March 1 she came first in the women’s 16-19 age group, 10km leg, of the Jerusalem Marathon, beating 500 runners in her category and covering the distance in 44 minutes. Just a little more than two weeks later, on March 16, she was awarded a gold medal in the 54kg division of the 10th Amateur-Pro Muay Thai Championships in Bangkok,
winning the title bout against a Bulgarian boxer.
Adding to her sporting achievements is a four year stint (2008 – 2012) as a member of the Israeli national flag football team, for whom she played abroad in many countries, including France and Germany. She started playing the game − a version of American football in which the ball-carrier is stripped of a flag instead of tackled – when she was 11.
Nili was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States and her family moved to Israel when she was two years old. She started learning Muay Thai at the age of 10. ‘‘My mum was at that time a volunteer police woman attached to the Jerusalem police department and she was looking for some kind of martial arts which would be beneficial for her work,” said Nili. “I went with her as she looked for a Muay Thai training camp and I started to train with her. I stopped training for two years while going to school and resumed when I was 13. My father (an orthodox Jew and a dentist by profession) supports and encourages me to box.”
...
Sarah wasn’t available for an interview, but she also has quite an amazing story. Born into a Hindu family in Mumbai, India, her father was a friend of Rabbi Gavriel and his wife Rivka, who were both murdered when terrorists attacked the Chabad House (Jewish community centre) in Mumbai in November 2008. Out of solidarity with the Jewish people, Sarah’s entire family converted to Judaism and migrated to Israel in 2009. Sarah took up Muay Thai while studying in a religious school.
If you can stand the music, here's Nili's winning fight:
