Ornella Clara: "I always enjoy training."
Ornella Clara, a master's student at the Faculty of Pharmacy, won first place at the university light kickboxing championships held on February 3 and 4, 2024, in Reims.
Light kickboxing? "It's kickboxing but with touch, which means you control your strength; the goal is not to hurt each other," explains Ornella Clara, who put on her first gloves eight years ago when she started Thai boxing and then "graduallymovedon to kickboxing." She then moved on to light kickboxing on the advice of Atmane Ben Rabia, her boxing coach at the University of Montpellier.
"It was an opportunity for me to test myself in competition and meet other partners of my level and in my category, in which there aren't very many of us." Her category: under 50 kilos. She may be small in stature, but she takes great pleasure in practicing her sport, which enabled her to take first place at the university championships in Reims, even though she didn't think she would win at all but was looking forward to "meeting other partners."
Good atmosphere in the ring
An unexpected achievement for the student who trains four to six hours a week and "always enjoys going." No overwork, a good atmosphere, and an activity that fits in "without difficulty" with her pharmacy studies, where she is enrolled in a research master's program at both the University of Montpellier and the University of Marseille.
Her plan: to find funding for a thesis in developmental biology to take her first steps in a career asa researcher. "And to continue to flourish and have fun in the sports I play, so that it always remains a pleasure." A successful balance between her personal, professional, and sporting lives.