British Pakistani girl wins 64 Karate gold medals across England

LONDON: A 15-years-old British Pakistani girl has made a new record by bagging 64 gold medals after winning Karate matches across England.

Myra Nasim started taking interest in Karate at the age of 5 when she would see her older brother learning karate at a local community centre in East London. She asked her father to pay for her Karate lessons and soon after her coach spotted unique talent in her and urged her to train more.

She told The News and Geo in an interview: “The coach saw huge potential in me and started sending me to competitions. At the age of 7 I won my first gold medal and since then I have won 64 gold medals in all competitions. At the age of 10 I was the youngest athlete to win 3 national titles in the same year. In 2017, I represented England at youth level and won gold in my first attempt. In 2018, I won all 4 international titles including the most prestigious the English National Championship. I have done 11 TV commercials for some of the biggest names as well as 3 TV shows and worked as extra in 2 films.

Myra Nasim now wants to represent Pakistan at the next world championship in Chile in October 2019. “I have represented my country England and now I want to represent Pakistan which is the country of my origin. I will be honoured if I get the opportunity to raise flag of Pakistan.”

At the age of 5, Myra was taken to a local community centre where her older brother Nauman did Karate. “I went there to watch my brother who was doing Karate for 2 years and had been selected for England. I went there again and I just played around with a few karate moves and I caught attention of my coach. He asked me to join the club as he could see huge potential in me. At the age of 7, I started going to competitions, but in my first year I did not win anything, so I changed my training method with more fitness training, making sure I did not make the same mistakes I did before, and I also changed my diet from crisps, chocolates to more healthy eating.”

That helped Myra Nasim and her first victory came at the age of 9 when she won her first competition. “Since then I have achieved 64 gold medals in all competitions which is a record for any karate athlete in the country; I have won 4 gold medals in 1 competition, 5 times. At the age of 10 I became the youngest karate athlete to 3 national titles in one year. When I was 12 I got selected for the England National Karate Youth Team at my first attempt and here I won gold for England which was held in Finland. In 2018 I won all 4 national titles, achieving something nobody in karate in England has done before including the most prestigious, The English National Title. At the age of 12 I was also nominated for the Asian Personality of the year, probably the youngest person to be nominated.

Myra Nasim says that credit of her success goes to her trainer Navin, who runs a training centre in Greenford with his mother, and her father who has given up his full time job to make sure that her children are trained and given time.

Myran Nasim said that she devotes a lot of time to stay fit. “My father is very strict with my diet regime. He doesn’t let me eat chocolates and junk food. My trainer pushes me to the extreme and every week there is a new exercise routine that I am made to follow. I train in the gym, at the centre and in my bedroom.

I am training religiously in order to stay fit and in shape. I must say that I am not a huge fan of Pakistani food. I prefer English food although I do eat Pakistani roti with chicken once a week. Fitness is really everything. I work a lot at home and train non-stop. I finish the tasks given by my trainer and for the next session I go for new approaches.”

Myra hopes that she will be able to represent Pakistan at the world stage in near future. “It’s my ambition to represent the country of my origin and showcase to the world that we have talent and we know how to win and make impact. I want more Pakistani girls to get into sports and make their mark. It’s my wish to see more sporting facilities for young girls in Pakistan. Girls are the future of Pakistan.”