Teenage martial artist Prapti Batas is all set to compete at the IFMA Muay Thai Youth World Championships to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from August 9 to 20.

The national champion in the Under 16 age category will vie in the 51kg weight division of junior women’s 14 to 15 years age category. She will be Nepal’s lone representative in the event recognised by the International Federation of Muay Thai Association.

“She is one of the most talented fighters we have,” said coach Rahul Moktan, who has been training her for a year at Gymkhana Muay Thai in Maharajgunj. “She completed her training for the tournament on Friday.”

The 14-year-old who has been in the game for nearly two years has fought three bouts of the full sports in the country and won all. But they were all against homegrown opponents. She will face the real challenge in her maiden international fight in Malaysia. Altogether 11 fighters will vie in Prapti’s category.

“Winning at the World Championships is a tough job, but as we are heading to competition, our focus will be to win the gold,” said coach Moktan.

Prapti, a ninth grader at The British School, says she took up martial arts inspired by her father, Dipendra Raj Batas.

“My father inspired me to join taekwondo some three years back,” recalls Prapti. “He took me to taekwondo dojang and I practised the game for three years. Later, while I was at the Gymkhana for fitness, gym coach [Moktan] persuaded me to join Muay Thai and now it has been more than a year that I am in the game.” Prapti also underwent a month-long training in Phuket, Thailand, in May.

For the last one month, she has been undergoing training thrice a day.

“As school is closed for summer vacation now, I have been training thrice a day. But I train twice on regular days,” said Prapti, adding that it was difficult for her to balance studies and games in the beginning but “now it is adjusted automatically.”

Despite vying at an international competition for the first time, she is upbeat about her prospect of throwing a tough challenge.

“I expect the opponents to be tough and taller than me because athletes from more than 100 countries will be vying in the competition,” Prapti said, adding that her strength lies in timing and perseverance. “I am hopeful of winning a medal. I need to utilise technique and power and I believe I am technically sound.”