Mumbai: Having won five World Championship titles, she created a flutter in the entire sports fraternity of India, let alone boxing. But this Kom tribe lady pugilist failed to make the cut for the 2016 Olympics slated to be held in Rio de Janeiro in two months’ time.
The 36-year-old boxer had failed in the qualifiers for the Olympics after making exit in the second round of last month’s World Championships — the second and last qualifying tournament for women for the Rio Games. She was required to make at least the semi-finals of the tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan last month.
However, the boxer’s achievement and contribution to Indian boxing sent the Indian boxing association’s ad-hock committee members in thinking mode as they were looking for an opportunity to send Mary again for the mega event. Now, it seems, they will try for a wild card entry for the woman boxer.
“Considering Mary’s performance over the years and her detrmination to take Indian boxing at a different level, we are compelled to think over and over again as how she could be sent to Rio. Now, we will try for a wild card for her, but that won’t be easy as other countries will also send their entries and then the onus would be on the International Boxing Federation (IBF) whether to grant her the permission or not,” Kishen Narsi, the chairman of the ad-hoc committee, which is currently running boxing in India, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
However, Mary has a lot under her belt to show that she is capable of fighting at the top level of the amateur section. Aprt from winning five World Chmapionships, Mary earned India’s first medal in women’s boxing when she won the bronze in the last London Olympics in 2012 in the 51 kg category.
Meanwhile, by dint of her magnificent career, she was nominated as the member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, on April 26 this year by the the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.