Asian Games gold medal-winning former boxer Dingko Singh died on Thursday after a long battle with liver cancer, reported PTI. He was 42 and had been fighting the disease since 2017.
Dingko won the Asian Games gold in 1998 and was bestowed the Arjuna award the same year. In Bangkok he ended a long wait for Indian boxing as he became the first Indian since heavyweight Kaur Singh won the gold medal in the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.
He had become the fourth overall to achieve the feat after Padam Bahadur Mall, who won India’s first games gold in the 1962 Jakarta Games, Hawa Singh — the 1966 and 1970 Bangkok winner — before Kaur Singh in 1982. In 2013, he was honoured with the Padma Shri for his contribution to the sport. Dingko inspired a generation of Indian pugilists with his swashbuckling ring craft and flamboyant personality.
The Manipuri superstar, who won his maiden national title (sub-junior) as a 10-year-old, was among the first modern stars of Indian boxing with his Asian Games gold. “He was a rockstar, a legend, a rage,” six-time World Champions MC Mary Kom told PTI. “I remember I used to queue up to watch him fight in Manipur. He inspired me. He was my hero. It is a huge loss. He has gone too soon.”
News Source : Outlook.com
