Kick it like Aafrid

Mysuru lad, who won medals in national-level kickboxing C’ship, is now selected for international contest.

Shilpa | NT

Mysuru: A son of Mysuru-based Kusthi Pailwan (who had won several medals at the state level), who made his father’s name shine at national level by winning in National level kickboxing competition recently, has now been selected for international level kickboxing championship.

15-year-old Aafrid Khan, son of Afroz Khan (fondly called ‘Rocket Pailwan’), is the said champion.

He won a gold medal against Assam in the ‘light contact’ event, and a silver medal against West Bengal in the ‘kick light’ event, in the sub-junior 42 kg category at ‘Cadet, Junior and Senior Wako India National Kick Boxing Championship’, organised by Wako India Kickboxing Federation and hosted by Amateur kickboxing association of Maharashtra at Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj sports complex, Balewadi in Pune in Maharashtra in December end.

“Aafrid is now selected for international level kickboxing competition— 4th South Asian Jeet Kune Do championship— which would be held at Kathmandu in Nepal in April, for which he is preparing,” Aafrid’s father Afroz told News Trail.

Aafrid, a resident of Udaygiri in Mysuru, and a Class 9 student who aims to be an engineer as his father dreams of educating atleast his kids, as he could just study till SSLC. Aafrid’s first focus is his education, so he finishes his studies at home first soon after he comes from school and later he practices kickboxing from 8 pm to 10:30 pm every day. That way he is balancing both education and passion for kickboxing well.

Afroz, who learned Kusthi at Nawab sab garadi mane at Meena bazaar in Mysuru, has been practicing Kusthi from 30 years. And he has fought over 100 Kusthi matches including a famous state-level contest held at Bankapur near Hubli. Now he is coaching students at Lalamiya garadi mane, Haji Nazir garadi mane, Mamud Khan Diwan Khan garadi mane, and others in Mysuru.

Inspired by his father who still practices for an hour a day at garadi mane, Aafrid started learning kickboxing from Farjath at Elite academy in Mysuru three years ago. His father has not just been encouraging Aafrid’s sport, but being a pailwan himself, he is taking care of Aafrid’s nutritional aspect too, which is important for a sports person, with a dream to see his son win medals at national and international level.

Along with Aafrid, eight others from his academy too bagged medals at the national level contest held at Pune, but Aafrid is the only one who is selected for the international level contest. While Afroz runs a furniture business, he is financially not strong to send his son to the international-level contest. But he is not the one to give up his dream to see his son at the international level, so he is in constant search of someone to sponsor Aafrid’s trip to contest in the 4th South Asian Jeet Kune Do Championship in Nepal.