A 14-year-old girl, Tajamul Islam, from Jammu and Kashmir, has won the gold medal in the under 14 age category  in the World Kickboxing Championship held at Cairo, Egypt. after defeating Argentina’s Lalina in the final. The championship started on October 18 and concluded on October 24, 2021. Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha immediately congratulated Tajamul "for scripting history" and said "our young kickboxing champion has done exceptionally well over the years". Her feat has been hailed on social media, especially her act of celebrating her win with the Indian flag draped around her. 

Kickboxers from around the globe were participating in the event, including 30 players from India in various age/weight categories, according to the paper Rising Kashmir. 

Islam played four bouts in the event of which she fought two against players from host country Egypt while her third and fourth bout was against opponents from France and Argentina respectively.

Tajamul had already won gold at the World Kickboxing Championship held at Andria, Italy in 2016. She was barely eight years old then, according to the paper.

She has also won gold medals at the district state, national and international level kickboxing competitions in the sub-junior category.

Now Tajamul wants to bag a gold medal at the Olympics. “I also want to become a doctor,” she said.

“Practicing harder at regular intervals played an important role in the bagging gold,” she said.

Tajamul is a brand ambassador of the Indian government's Beti Bachowo Beti Padoa (Protect the girl child, educate the girl child) campaign, Rising Kashmir said. 

Giving a message to budding sportspersons, she said budding sportspersons should have a "never give up attitude.

“Work hard. Sooner or later it will pay off. Participate in sports and do not indulge in negative activities like drugs etc,” she said, adding, “Despite many criticisms, I proved my worth to the world by my actions and hard work.”

Ghulam Mohammad Lone, Tajamul's proud father, told Kashmiri media that the news of her winning the gold medal I spread in the area and relatives, neighbors and people across Bandipora thronged to their residence to felicitate them.

“It is a proud moment which my daughter gave us,” Lone said. 

(SAM)