What if Kenia Enriquez were to play all the sports?

After just one year as a professional boxer, the 19 year-old Kenia Enriquez has seven victories and no defeats. At this point in her young career, she looks to be invincible. Photo: Jim Wyatt

September 1, 2013 On Sunday, September 1st, the 3rd annual “The goal is health 10 kilometer run” organized by the Board of Juvenile Integration Centers (ICJ), took place in Tijuana. 

Like most distance races, the start of Sunday’s 3rd annual “The Goal is Health 10K run” was high energy.

Men’s winner, Ruben Rodriguez crosses the finish line.

Ruben Rodriguez of Club Without Borders had virtually no rivals and toured solo all the way to reach the finish line with a lead of over 2½ minutes over his closest rival, Marco Antonio González of the Luck Club. Rodriguez’s time was 33.26 (five minutes and three seconds per mile) while Gonzalez finished with a time of 36.01. 

Maria Guadalupe Cruz is shown running like a deer.

Maria Guadalupe Cruz, also from Club Without Borders finished first among the women with a time of 40.23. Behind Cruz was 19 year-old Kenia Enriquez of Tijuana, the popular, undefeated flyweight boxer representing the Robles Team.  While it surprised me, others weren’t surprised at all. They say Enriquez is one of those athletes who can excel in any sport.  Makes you wonder what would happen if she were to pattern her life after the great Babe Didrikson Zaharias. She acquired the nickname “Babe” (after Babe Ruth) after hitting five home runs in a childhood baseball game. She went on to dominate the competition in pretty much every sport she played, and she played a lot of them.  Despite being an All American basketball standout, Didrikson was even more impressive in track and field. She won Olympic gold as a hurdler and javelin thrower in 1932. Three years later, she found her best sport of all: golf, in which she won 10 major championships, helped found the LPGA and then became its leading money winner for its first two seasons. Unsubstantiated mind you, but someone told me, Enriquez killed herself a bear when she was only three and once hit a golf ball over a mile. And, so the legend grows.

Could a marathon be next for this all around athlete?

Just like in boxing, long distance running is not a team sport. It’s all on you.

Kenia Enriquez (l) unloads a solid left hook on the side of Gloria Salas’ head on her way to her seventh straight win without a defeat. Photo: Jim Wyatt