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Jajpur: Financial constraint and inadequate sponsors threaten to cut short career of the son of a daily wager and an engineering student who got a lifetime opportunity to showcase his kickboxing skills in the world stage and bring laurels for India.
As per reports, Pritiranjan Patra, a resident of Khosalpur under Vyasanagar Municipality in Jajpur district has been selected to fight at the WKA Asian-Pacific Championships scheduled to begin on 7th March at Pattaya in Thailand. Following a stellar performance in the National level Kickboxing championship held at Siliguri, Pritiranjan managed to impress judges and won a gold medal.
He had a penchant for martial arts since his childhood. Though financial constraint and lack of training opportunities in his locality had put his dreams on the back burner, once he got admitted at IGIT Sarang to pursue B.Tech, he enrolled himself in the Kickboxing team of the college and started undergoing training. Soon he found himself competing with the best kickboxers of India and later went on to qualify for the Asian Pacific Championships.
"I had fought with many kickboxers in many events. I won the Gold medal in Siliguri by defeating fighters from Assam, Mizoram, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. I can get medals in international arena as well only if I get sponsorship to participate in those Championships," said Pritiranjan while talking about his skills and aspirations.
Belonging to a lower middle class family, he can’t afford to go to Thailand on his own unless he gets some kind of financial assistance from the state government or any sponsorship from corporates for that matter.
Speaking about their financial condition, Pramod Kumar Patra, Pritiranjan’s father said, “Being a daily wager I am incapable of sending him to Bangkok to fulfil his dreams. He is a bright student and I am sure he would do well in life after passing out from IGIT Sarang.”
Saraswati Patra, Pritiranjan’s mother said, “As morning shows the day, I always knew that Pritiranjan would do something good in life. We don’t have enough money to send him to Bangkok, so I request the government to help him achieve his dreams.”
