Radiance News
Hyderabad, Dec. 23:
Another boxer from Telangana’s Nizamabad has brought glory to the state and his hometown.
The government of India has announced the Arjuna award for Mohammed Hussamuddin for his outstanding performance.
Arjuna Award is the second-highest sporting honour in the country. Hussamuddin is one of 26 sportspersons selected by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for the honour for 2023.
The 29-year-old world boxing medallist will receive the award from President of India Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on January 9.
At the 2023 IBA Boxing World Championships, he won the bronze medal and thus became one of just 10 Indian boxers to win a medal in the world boxing championship.
Hussamuddin also won bronze at Asian Championships in 2022. He is also a two-time bronze medal winner in the Commonwealth Games. He had bagged the medal for the first time in 2018 Games at Gold Coast and repeated the performance at the Birmingham Games in 2022.
After world boxing champion Nikhat Zareen, he is the second boxer from Nizamabad to bring laurels to the country and Telangana.
Hussamuddin has received congratulations from politicians and other eminent personalities. People in Nizamabad have expressed happiness over the boxer bringing further recognition to the town.
He is son of well-known boxing coach Mohammed Samsamuddin, who is also the coach of Nikhat Zareen.
Samsamuddin has been providing coaching free of charge to hundreds of young boys and girls for the last four decades.
Hussamuddin was interested in boxing from his childhood though his father initially wanted him to be a gymnast. For the first time, he participated in a boxing event at the school level in 2007. He later started competing at the national level and was selected at Army Sports Institute (ASI).
He was not the first from the family to take to boxing. Samsamuddin was a boxer at the national level while his younger brother Ehteshamuddin had represented India at the junior world championship.
Hussamuddin joined the Indian army under the sports quota. He is currently serving as a subedar in the Army Corps of Engineers. He is the first boxer from South India to win a world medal.
Meanwhile, the government of Telangana has provided financial assistance of Rs.2 crore to Nikhat Zareen to prepare for the Paris Olympics scheduled to be held next year.
The 26-year-old became the world champion twice in a row. In IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships 2023, Nikhat defended her world title.
Nikhat is only the second Indian female boxer after Mary Kom to win multiple gold medals at the IBA Women’s World Championships.
