Though she has experience of international tournaments, having worked as a technical organiser during the Women's World Amateur Boxing Championship held at New Delhi in 2006, Asian Women Boxing Championship held at Guwahati and Hissar, she will be officiating in her first international tournament in the form of AK Mishra International Boxing Championship to be held in March in Chandigarh. "My name has been nominated by the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation for the AK Mishra Championship as a technical official. I am very excited," exclaims Sonia who cleared the Referee/ Judge or RC test conducted by Indian Amateur Boxing Association during the Nationals held at Chennai in 2001. "Though it was for the first time that I was participating in a national championship, I did not play any bout and opted for the test instead. Dr C K Jerath pushed me to take the test and it is due to him that I have reached at this level," says Sonia who has also been appointed as Ring Official Commission (ROC) member by IABF.

Sonia, who has got all the adulations and recognition from boxing, was not into this sport when she started her career into sports. "I was into judo and I have represented India at international level in Kazakhstan. Besides that, I was a three-time gold medallist in All India University Judo Championship," recalls Sonia. The switch from judo to boxing was easy because both are combative sports and there are lots of similarities between the two. So did not face any difficulty in switching over," she explains.