Ishwary Sunar. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Jan. 20: Ishwary Sunar, a student of Class VI, has been selected as one of the probable candidates of the national squad that will participate in the World Kickboxing Championship (Junior).

The tournament will be held in Serbia’s Belgrade in September.

“We have selected her in the preliminary list of the national squad on the basis of her performance at the 14th Sub-junior National Kickboxing Championship, which was held in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, in October,” said Mantu Das, the secretary general of the Indian Association of Kickboxing Organisation (IAKO), over the phone from Calcutta today.

Along with Ishwary, 19 others have been selected for the preliminary list in the junior category where children between 10 and 16 years will participate.

A student of St Alphonsa School, 12km from here, Ishwary had bagged gold in the semi-contact category and silver in aero-kickboxing at the national meet.

Officials of the Kickboxing Association of West Bengal informed Biswanath Roy, Ishwary’s coach and the general secretary of Darjeeling District Kickboxing Association, about her selection.

“I was told by the secretary general of IAKO about her selection in the preliminary list of the probable national team early this month. Now she will have to perform in the national events. Her final selection in the national team will be declared on the basis of her performance in the upcoming tournaments,” Roy said.

The 12-year-old girl from Kadamtala, on the outskirts of the town, will participate in the 12th West Bengal State Kickboxing Championship, which will be held in New Alipore, Calcutta, on January 30 and 31. “I am just working hard to develop her skills, so that she is included in the national team,” Roy said.

Ishwary said she is confident about performing well in the state-level tournament.

“I am practising hard and I am confident of doing well in the state championship. I like the sport and wanted to do well in it,” she said.

Ishwary added that she has been practising kickboxing since 2008 and she is preparing herself for the coming tournaments by practising four hours everyday.