India's Nikhat Zareen Wins Gold At Women's World Boxing Championships

India's Nikhat Zareen Wins Gold At Women's World Boxing Championships

On Thursday, Nikhat Zareen, an India Boxer clinched the final hurdle with a comfortable 5-0 victory over Thailand's Jitpong Jutamas in the flyweight (52kg) of the Women's World Championships in Istanbul. The Telangana boxer out-punched her Thai rival to win via a unanimous 5-0 verdict.

As per the information, Nikhat thus becomes only the fifth Indian women's boxer after Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL, and Lekha KC to win a gold at the World Championships. The 25-year-old Zareen is a former junior youth world champion. Against her Thai opponent in the final, Nikhat fought with brilliance and brought home the gold medal. The judges scored the bout 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 29-28 in the Indian's favor.

Zareen was in top form as she used her technical acumen and covered to court well to outwit her nimble-footed opponent. Nikhat managed to impress all the judges in the first round as she landed far more punches than the Thai boxer. The second round was tighter and Jitpong clinched it 3-2. Needing to get just one judge on her side in the final round, Nikhat went all in and slammed the door on her opponent to eventually record a 5-0 unanimous decision in her favour.

It was also India's first gold medal since boxing great Mary Kom won it in 2018.

According to the statement given by BFI President Ajay Singh said, "Winning a medal at the world's is always a dream and Nikhat could achieve it so early is extremely commendable. We, at BFI, are proud that our boxers have not only made all of us proud but each of their boxing journeys is inspiring for the upcoming generations," 

He further added, "On behalf of the Boxing Federation of India, I congratulate Nikhat and bronze medal winners Parveen and Manisha as well as the coaches and support staff for this achievement. Our eight boxers qualified for the quarter-finals which were joint-most and show the strength of Indian boxing."

Out of 12 participating Indian boxers, eight made it to the quarter-finals in this year's tournament—the joint highest alongside Turkey.