Bengaluru: This Kannadiga brought laurels to his state by winning the gold medal in the light heavy weight (81 kg) category at the National Federation Cup 2017-18, held in New Delhi last Friday. This was not his biggest fight ever but, his nine-month long battle with blood cancer sure was.
Girish R Gowda (31) from Bengaluru is the proud Kannadiga and kickboxer, who won the gold medal at the national level after a long battle against acute blood cancer.
He was diagnosed with acute blood cancer last March, when he fainted while practising his fights. However, his grit and determination during his treatment despite the pain and disappointments, enabled him to start practising afresh with the ultimate goal to revive his career in sports. He overcame the trauma and the challenge in a span of four months (March to June) last year, and started preparing for his next fight.
“Being born again after my fight with cancer for the last nine months, I feel like this is my first fight. This is in fact, my 9th gold medal in the national championships and I feel so elated as the previous year had been full of trauma, pain and disappointments,” he said.
Girish has been National Champion in kickboxing in his category, eight times and has won silver medals in World Championships too.
