India’s top woman boxer MC Mary Kom in Kota on Sunday called upon students to not get demotivated by failures and try to learn from them. The six time world champion said this during an awards ceremony of a coaching institute in Kota.

The Olympic medal winner said, “Students should not get discouraged from losing. Rather they should try to learn something from it.”

“Sometimes I lose a match but losing does not demotivate me. Instead I learn from the failure and try to overcome it in future,” said Mary Kom who is the only woman to have become World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the seven world championships.

Hard work and dedication is the key to success and talent is not related to wealth, said Mary Kom, who is Padma Bhushan, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award winner.

“India is a country of youth and if every youth dreams big and work hard to achieve it, then the country will change,” she said.

She asserted that “Loosing and winning are part and parcel of life. I play for my country and feel proud when I represent my nation internationally.”

Mary Kom said that there no such thing as good and bad coach. “You will definitely learn something from both.” In her initial journey the coach was not a national level player but she learned the basics from him which made her foundation strong.

Later while talking to the media in Kota, Mary kom said that currently she is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She is also focussing on her preparation for the World championship and Asian championship next year.

First Published: Dec 10, 2018 14:59 IST