MC Mary Kom recuses herself from Dronacharya Award selection panel to avoid conflict of interest

New Delhi: Champion boxer MC Mary Kom on Saturday recused herself from the Dronacharya Award selection panel in order to avoid conflict of interest as her personal coach Chhotelal Yadav was in contention. [caption id=“attachment_4718091” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of MC Mary Kom. AFP[/caption] The six-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist’s presence in the panel raised eyebrows as her coach was also one of the candidates for Dronacharya, but Mary Kom promptly decided to recuse herself from the selection process. Mary Kom was among the athletes who are in the selection panel — which includes former footballer Baichung Bhutia, former long-jumper Anju Bobby George, former women’s cricket team captain Anjum Chopra and table tennis coach Kamlesh Mehta. Besides Chhotelal, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has recommended the names of World Championships bronze-medallist Gaurav Bidhuri and Asian Games gold medallist Amit Panghal for the Arjuna Award while Sandhya Gurung and Shiv Singh are the other coaches they have nominated for the Dronacharya.