Boxing world champion MC Mary Kom has added yet another feather to her hat. She was honoured as the ‘Best Female Asian Athlete’ in the first-ever Asian Sportswriters Union (AIPS Asia) Awards on Tuesday, August 27.
Inaugural AIPS Asia award won by Korea, India, Japan and Qatar. @sattamalsahli @Selangor2019 pic.twitter.com/ly53TSGj1A
— AIPS ASIA (@AipsAsia) August 27, 2019
AIPS is an organisation founded in 1978. The first of its kind award ceremony conducted in Malaysia to honour the Asian sports-persons whose performance remained par excellence.
Representatives from 30 countries in Asia took part in the event wherein nominees from India, Korea, Japan, and Qatar were awarded.
Mary Kom received this award with her male counterpart Heung-min Son, a South-Korean professional footballer.
Mary Kom’s Glorious Career
The 36-year-old flyweight boxer qualified for the award for being the only woman to clinch the World Amateur Boxing Award six times consecutively. She was also the only boxer to have won a medal in all the seven world championships.
Her most recent achievement was at the 23rd President’s Cup held in Indonesia in November 2018 where she won gold in the 51 kg category. Kom shared the video on Twitter when she was getting the title. The video went viral in no time.
Gold medal for me and for my country at #PresidentCup Indonesia. Winning means you’re willing to go longer,work harder & give more effort than anyone else. I sincerely thanks to all my Coaches and support staffs of @BFI_official @KirenRijiju @Media_SAI pic.twitter.com/R9qxWVgw81
— Mary Kom (@MangteC) July 28, 2019
Nicknamed Magnificient Mary, she was conferred with the prestigious Padma Shree in 2006 and Padma Bhushan in 2013.
She is the only Indian woman boxer to have been selected for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and secured the bronze medal.
She also stood on top of the AIBA World Women’s Ranking Light Flyweight category. She became the first Indian woman boxer to get a Gold Medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian woman boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Her significant achievements led her to secure a seat in the Rajya Sabha. On 26th April 2016, Kom was nominated as the member of the upper house of the assembly by the President.
Also Read: Punching To Glory: Upset Stomach, Age & Critics Can’t Stop India’s Magnificent Mary
