{"id":9556,"date":"2008-02-11T15:41:28","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T15:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2008\/02\/11\/martial-arts-youngster-hoping-for-award-glory\/"},"modified":"2008-02-11T15:41:28","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T15:41:28","slug":"martial-arts-youngster-hoping-for-award-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2008\/02\/11\/martial-arts-youngster-hoping-for-award-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Martial Arts youngster hoping for award glory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>Nine-year-old Maira Malik gunning for glory<\/h3>\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"214\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"10\" width=\"232\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"3\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/MairaMalik232x180.jpg\"\/>A BUDDING young martial arts star is hoping to kick her way to stardom this weekend at the annual British Asian Sports Awards.<\/strong> <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Nine-year-old Maira Malik has been chosen as one of three nominees fighting for the Young Sports Personality of the Year award. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The British Asian Sports Awards recognise sporting talent from the Asian community and will be held at the <span>London Hilton Park Lane this weekend. <\/span><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Maira, who has been performing the sport for nearly three years at the Family Martial Arts centre in her hometown of Liverpool, has already fought her way to a black belt which she achieved last December. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>She is also a \u2018Success Coach\u2019 at the centre which allows her to coach and motivate her fellow students. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Speaking to The Asian Today, young Maira said she was \u201cexcited\u201d at the prospect of meeting her hero Amir Khan \u2013 a sporting legend in the Malik household.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cIt feels great that my achievements have been recognized\u201d, she said. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cI enjoy martial arts because it teaches me to be kind, respectful and have confidence in myself. It also keeps me fit.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>She added: \u201cI\u2019m very excited about going to London \u2013 mostly because I will meet Amir Khan but I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be nervous on the day.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Dad Younis said the whole family was extremely proud of Maira\u2019s achievement. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>He said: \u201cWe\u2019re both very proud of our little girl being nominated for this award. We have always really appreciated Maira\u2019s commitment to her Martial Arts but having others recognise it and appreciate it is a great feeling for us as her parents. It makes us feel that all the running around we have had to do for her is worth every effort.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe were surprised but also absolutely delighted when we found out Maira had got through to the final round &#8211; especially as we weren\u2019t actually going to enter until the day before the closing date so it\u2019s\u00a0really pleasing result. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe feel for all the others who entered but weren\u2019t selected as I\u2019m sure they would have been a little disappointed.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The whole family will travel down to London from Liverpool this weekend to support Maira and rub shoulders with some sporting greats.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe really looking forward to the awards night\u201d, Younis added, \u201cIt will be a great chance to see some really inspirational people, especially Amir Khan who\u2019s a bit of a favourite in our house.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nine-year-old Maira Malik gunning for glory A BUDDING young martial arts star is hoping to kick her way to stardom this weekend at the annual British Asian Sports Awards. &#13; Nine-year-old Maira Malik has been chosen as one of three nominees fighting for the Young Sports Personality of the Year award. &#13; The British Asian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}