Nikhat Zareen defends her world championship.
Only the legendary Mary Kom was able to win gold at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships twice. Nikhat Zareen, who is only 26 years old, is slowly stepping into those huge shoes. On Sunday, the favourite of the crowd defeated Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Tam 5-0 at the packed KD Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi.
What Nikhat Zareen said
A second World Championship gold, this time in a new weight class, is a special day. My most difficult fight to date was against an Asian champion today. After the match, Nikhat stated, “The strategy was to use all the energy I had left, despite a tough tournament, and I threw everything at it.”
The Asian Games are the next target, so winning against her in the first big championships since changing categories was important.
Lovlina the new champion
Lovlina, Champion after Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain won her first Women’s World Boxing Championship gold medal in a contentious 5-2 decision over Caitlin Parker of Australia shortly after Nikhat’s fight. The Assam middleweight boxer won the fight via split decision, 3-2. Under the new bout review system of the IBA, she then received two points from the evaluator and the observer.
After winning two gold medals on Saturday, Indian boxing had a fantastic weekend with these two victories.Nikhat had been eliminated from contention at these World Championships due to a change in weight category from 52 kg to 50 kg.
Also Read: Mumbai Indians Became First Champion Of WPL, Beating Delhi Capitals By 7 wickets
Nitu Ghanghas (48 KG) and Saweety Boora (81 KG) were named world champions in their respective weight classes on Saturday.
India, the host nation, matched their best performance ever in terms of gold medals, but it did not take home any silver or bronze.At home, India had won four gold medals in the 2006 competition, which was also the nation’s best ever performance with eight medals, one of which was a silver.