For two years now 22-year-old Madhavi Gonbare has won the gold medal in the World Amateur Chess Boxing Competition -? all thanks to the support and training given by one Mumbai cop.?
Chessboxing combines chess, a cerebral board game, and boxing, a physical sport. Players fight alternate bouts of boxing and chess.
Madhavi is the daughter of a widow who works as a school peon. After Madhavi finished college as her family wasn¡¯t in a position to finance her training and things got even more difficult after father had died in a road accident.?
In May 2017, she got a chance to participate in the Chessboxing Amateur World Championship in Kolkata. But the roadblock was that Madhavi had to pay a whopping Rs 30,000 as the participation fee.
That's when Avinash Dharmadhikari ¡ª then a senior inspector at the Sakinaka police station ¡ª lent her a helping hand.?
Dharmadhikari was later promoted to assistant commissioner of police (ACP) in Dongri and he never once forgot about her. According to a?Mid Day report,?this?year he stepped up and raised the participation fees through donors a second time.
ACP Dharmadhikari told the Mid Day, "I am very happy that she won the gold medal in the World Amateur Chess Boxing Competition, in which more than 100 competitors participated from Russia, Finland, USA, Germany and other countries."
The report also states that Sakinaka resident and social worker, Lavita Powell, who donated Rs 1.5 lakh in educational fees and boxing training.
Inspiring indeed!?