Mary Kom, PV Sindhu among five nominees for BBC Indian Sportswoman of 2019

The ‘BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year Award’ has picked five of India’s finest athletes in its list of nominees for its inaugural edition. PV Sindhu, MC Mary Kom, Vinesh Phogat, Dutee Chand and Manasi Joshi will vie for the honour.

The award will be decided through public voting on six BBC vernacular websites, a process that will end on February 18, with the winner to be announced on Women’s Day (March 8).

The voting process was opened by wrestler Sonam Malik, who had stunned Rio 2016 bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik at the national trials for the Asian Championships last month.

A big year for nominees

Each of the five names in the nominee list has had a successful 2019. The Rio 2016 silver-medallist PV Sindhu won a historic BWF Badminton World Championship, the first Indian to do so, dominating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a rematch of the 2017 final.

Para-badminton athlete Manasi Joshi wrote some of her own history at the para-badminton World Championships, defeating compatriot Parul Parma, an opponent she had never beaten before, in the final.

London 2012 bronze-medallist and six-time world champion, MC Mary Kom won bronze in the 51kg flyweight category at the 2019 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships at Ulan-Ude, Russia.

She fell 1-4 to Turkish boxer, Busenaz Cakiroglu but ensured that she bagged her first medal in the 51kg category, with all of her previous medals, save for the Olympics bronze coming in the 48kg category.

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat confirmed a spot for India at Tokyo 2020 with a remarkable bronze win in the women’s 53kg category at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The podium position was the result of a 4-1 win over Greek Olympian, Maria Prevolaraki.

Sprinter Dutee Chand, who won two silvers at the 2018 Asian Games and also participated in Rio 2016, won the 100m gold at the World Universiade in Naples, Italy.