Indian boxer Mary Kom has scored another honour as she has been named as one of the eight ambassadors for the upcoming World Championships by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). The event is scheduled to take place between May 19th to 27th in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Mary Kom (51kg), who has five World Championship gold medals to her credit and is a bronze-medallist of the 2012 London Olympics, gracefully said, "It's a great honour for me as an Indian. This title means that I will be representing international boxing and this is an honour which is not given to everybody," as reported by TOI.
Having missed out on an Olympic berth in last month's Asian Qualifiers, the 33-year-old star sportswoman is now aiming to secure her second successive Olympic appearance through the world event. AIBA had dubbed her 'Magnificent Mary' for her unprecedented gold medal count in it.
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AIBA has appointed eight ambassadors for next month’s Women’s World Boxing Championships in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. The list includes the current Olympic, Commonwealth and European Games Champion at flyweight and the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title British boxer Nicola Adams, and bronze medallist at the 2012 London Olympics, America’s Marlen Esparza, as well as Brazilian lightweight champion Adriana Araujo, Bulgaria's Stanimira Petrova and Morocco's Khadija Mardi.
The female officials chosen to be ambassadors are Algerian Kheira Siki Yakoub and Canada's Jennifer Huggins.
Astana will host more than 300 of the world's top female boxers, and in that respect Mary Kom's appointment as ambassador would mean that she stands tall amongst the rest of the contestants. Here's wishing her all the best.