When ‘Wins' is the new national kickboxing champ from Koliwada

City teen won a recent national kickboxingchamionship

- Sharmila.Ganesan

Since there were no punching bags in our dorm room, I would plaster transparent sellotape on the wall next to the locker of my bed and touch it with my fist at least 100 to 200 times to shadowpractice punches every day

Wins Patil | 17-YEAR-OLD KICKBOXER FROM KOLIWADA

Had his grandma allowed it, Koliwada's Wins Patil would spend most of the day kicking the air repeatedly or assaulting a choir-and-cotton-filled punching bag in his roomy second-floor balcony. But then ‘aai’, as he calls his father’s mother, won’t let go of her eleven flowerpots and so, this hamstrung teen kickboxer’s new punching bag stays deflated even as he bloats up. “My weight category has gone from ‘less than 50 kgs’ to ‘less than 84 kgs’ during the lockdown,” confesses the 17-year-old whose unique name not only seemed apt last month when he won a gold medal during his debut at a national kickboxing championship but also prompted a question from elders at Dharavi’s St Anthony’s church on New Years’ Eve: “Who isWins Patil?”