As World Championships debuts go, Elisa Williams made a pretty successful one at the AIBA Worlds on Thursday.

The Panamian boxer pulled out a wide 5-0 decision over another debutant, Hinami Yanai of Japan, early on the first day of competition at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi stadium. But it wasn’t just the scoreline that separated Hinami and Williams in the ring. Just 19, Yanai is among the younger players in the women’s 60kg division. Williams on the other hand is – at 38 years of age and a grandmother to a two-year-old – easily amongst the oldest in the competition.

And while she did plenty of damage with her two 10-ounce gloves, Williams is also familiar in dealing punishment with another twenty ounce piece – her Glock 9mm pistol, the standard sidearm issued to members of the Panama City Police.

Williams is a sergeant on the force – that’s her full time job. She has had reason to use her weapon, too.

“I’ve been shot at and I’ve shot at criminals too. There was a time five years ago when I was involved in a crossfire. But I was with my team and was not hit. We caught the criminal and we sent him to jail,” she says.

Boxing, despite the chance of taking a punch to the face, compares favourably to patrolling the streets.

“Boxing is a lot easier than being in the police,” she says. It was through policing that Williams came into boxing though, even if it came in quite late in her career. “I only started boxing when I was 30 years old,” she says through coach Saul Saucedo.

While Panama has a rich history of boxers, Williams had not been taken by the sport as a youngster. She had however been a sportsperson, representing the Panama women’s softball team in her youth. “I only shifted to boxing because it allowed me to spend more time with my family,” she says.

But what started out as a hobby slowly became an obsession. Now, it has become harder for her to chose between the sport and her job. “It’s a difficult to give time to both. It’s very hard to do my job and also boxing,” she says.

Which is why it has taken eight years since she first strapped on boxing gloves to make her debut. “I wanted to compete at the Rio Olympics but I couldn’t qualify. I had just moved from the 64kg weight division to the 60kg division so it was taking time to adjust.”

The move to lightweight has been successful so far. This year,Williams won gold at the Central America and Caribbean Games and then a bronze at the Elite Continental Tournament. Despite her success, Williams has found it hard to convince her family to take up boxing like her.

“My daughters Elisabeth and Marciel don’t box. But my grandson Marial is two years old. Maybe he will become a boxer.”

For the moment though, her sights are fixed on the Tokyo Olympics. “I want to go to the Tokyo Olympics and after that I’ll be done with boxing.”