A 12-year-old boy from Onagam village of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district has won a gold medal in the ongoing National Kickboxing Championship in Kolkata.
Furqan Fayaz, a 7th-class student, bagged a gold medal after remaining unbeaten in four consecutive games.
He defeated Telangana in the first game, Assam in 2nd, Delhi in the semi-final, and in the finals, he defeated Pondicherry and bagged gold.
With the winning of this gold medal, he qualified for the world kickboxing championship to be held in Italy from September 30 to October 9, this year.
In an exclusive chat with Rising Kashmir, Furqan said that as kids, everyone has lofty dreams of being professional athletes before harsh reality hits. “But for me, all dreams turn out to be true.”
Furqan said he got into kickboxing in 2018 when he joined a local academy, Ali Sports Academy, which trains young boys and girls in different sports in Bandipora.
He said that in 2018, six months after joining kickboxing, he got selected for his first National tournament, which was held in Dehradun, where he remained runner-up and didn’t bag any medals.
On being questioned about how he got attracted to kickboxing, Furqan replied that he watched the game on TV and opted for it. He said he also picked up a gold medal in the inter-UT kickboxing championship held in Jammu in March this year.
Furqan said that he was nervous and there was pressure also as it was his second chance to represent J&K second time at the National level. “I made it, and I have to keep going forward. I don’t have to stop now and take my game forward professionally”, he said.
