By IANS
New Delhi : Three-time world women’s boxing champion in the 46 kg category M.C. Marykom of Manipur, now a happy mother of twin eight-week-old sons, hopes to be back in training in a couple of months.
“She needs rest now,” said her husband K. Onler, a social worker.
Marykom has put on only one kilo, according to Onler. So she won’t have much of a problem staying in her weight category.
The twin boys, named Rechungvar and Khuneigar, were born Aug 5, about the time a central government committee in Delhi was busy finalising the Rajiv Khel Ratna award winner, for which the champion Manipur boxer considered herself a deserving contender.
The award, had she won it, would have doubled Marykom’s happiness and also come as a boost for sport in her trouble-torn state.
“Dukh hua mujhe nahin mila (I was disappointed at not getting it),” she told IANS from her home where she is now resting. As it was, the award went to shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu.
At a time when only cricketers are being felicitated and lavished with rewards, only the Sabeer Bhatia-owned arzoo.com were generous enough to offer a contract, worth Rs.25,000 a month, to Marykom, employed as a sub-inspector in the Manipur police. The contract ends later this year.
But “Marykom will approach Mr Bhatia to be good enough to extend the arrangement,” said Onler.
Marykon uses the money to run a little boxing academy of her own for girls in her village, and one of her pupils has even had the distinction of winning a sub-junior gold medal for Manipur in the last National Games in Guwahati.