Nikhat Zareen scripted history by becoming the fifth Indian woman to clinch the coveted gold medal on the Ladies’s World Boxing Championship in Istanbul. She defeated Thailand’s Jitpong Jutamas to change into the realm champion within the flyweight class.
Nikhat started the fight with three crushing blows within the opening minutes, but Jutamas made a limiteless comeback, making divulge of her prolonged attain. On the opposite hand, Nikhat’s highly efficient punches and agile movement proved too mighty for the Thai boxer.
“These two years, I angry by my sport simplest and whatever the weaknesses had been there in my sport, I tried to enhance,” the boxer advised journalists after the historic resolve. “I worked on my solid functions and on the place I lacked in my sport. I worked on the functions the place I wished to work and made myself solid.”
Earlier than Nikhat, Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL, and Lekha KC had been the four Indian boxers to enact this consequence. She needed to relief for her flip, as the legendary boxer Mary Kom too fought within the the same segment.
How Did Nikhat Earn Into Boxing?
The truth that Nikhat used to be born into a sport-loving family pushed her to pursue athletics rather early in existence. She used to be trained by her father Mohammad Jameel Ahmed, who continuously wished for sure one of his four daughters to construct a profession in sports activities. She also received the genetic lottery, as his father pale to play every football and cricket, while her uncles too pursued boxing of their childhood.
“I had two daughters before Nikhat. They had been continuously mute and studious. I didn’t want to apprehension too mighty about them. But Nikhat had so mighty vitality as a minute one. There wasn’t one day that she wasn’t going in effort,” Jameel advised Sportstars.
She donned boxing gloves for the first time at an age of 13, after being told by a Shamsamsuddin, who pale to lumber a boxing academy in Nizamabad. Shamsamsuddin felt her agility and grit will resolve her a long way within the boxing area. Six months into her boxing profession, she received the snarl championship and likewise received the gold medal in Rural Nationals in Punjab.
Nikhat used to be quickly inducted into the Sports Authority of India the place she trained below Venkateswara Rao. Her dramatic upward thrust continued, as appropriate a 365 days later, she bagged gold within the World Junior and Formative years Championship.
“It’s no longer easy for ladies to resolve to sports activities, but in her case, it used to be no longer an advanced choice. She wished to divulge within the footsteps of her cousins, who are worldwide boxers. So here’s adore a family sport for her,” Jameel Ahmed had acknowledged after her 2011 victory.
Nikhat vs Mary Kom
The Boxing Federation Of India (BFI) had canceled the boxing trials of the flyweight class for the Olympics qualifiers, thus giving an computerized entry to Mary Kom in accordance alongside with her past accolades. Infuriated with the choice, Nikhat Zareen wrote to BFI for a splendid trial.
“All I resolve on is a splendid likelihood.