Nikhat Zareen won the gold medal in the 52kg category at the Women’s World Boxing Championship with a win over Thailand’s Jitpong Jutamas 5-0 in the fly-weight final in Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday. Consequently Nikhat Zareen 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 Nikhat Zareen is a prior junior youth world champion. Nikhat Zareen created history.
The last medal in this championship was won by Mary Kom in 2018, after four years, the country’s daughter is bringing gold again. The IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships (the 12th edition of the championships) was held in Istanbul, Turkey from 8 to 20 May 2022.
Who is Nikhat Zareen?
She was born on 14 June 1996 to Mohammad Jameel Ahmed and Parveen Sultana in Nizamabad city of Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) Zareen is pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Arts at AV College in Hyderabad, Telangana. For her contribution to sports, Nikhat was presented with electric scooters and a cash award of 10000 rupees by sports minister V. Srinivas Goud in 2020. She has been appointed as the staff officer in the Bank of India,zonal office at AC Guards, Hyderabad.(Wikipedia)
At the age of 14 won the title of World Youth Boxing Champion
She was introduced to boxing by her father, Mohammad Jameel Ahmed. Zareen father’s wish that one of her four daughters must pick up a sport. Zareen has been on an amazing 12-year journey to the Gold Medal at the World Boxing Championship. She began boxing at the young age of 13 under the coaching of Shamsamsuddin, who trains boxers on his own in academy at Nizamabad (Telangana). She was only 14 when she won the World Youth Boxing Championship. This was only the beginning of her very successful career.
Her Earlier Achievements
In 2010, with in 6 months since starting her training, Nikhat won the Gold Medal in the Telangana State Championship.
- 2011 Women’s Junior and Youth World Boxing Championships- She won gold medal in flyweight division held at the AIBA Women’s Junior and Youth World Boxing Championship in Turkey. Nikhat Zareen challenge against Turkish boxer Ulku Demir and after 3 rounds she won the bout 27:16
- 2014 Youth World Boxing Championships- Zareen won a silver medal in the Youth World Boxing Championship held in Bulgaria in 2014.
- 2015 16th Senior Woman National Boxing Championship– Zareen won a gold medal at 16th Senior Woman National Boxing Championship which match was held in Assam.
- 2019 Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament-She won a silver medal at Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament gripped in Bangkok.
- 2019 Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament- She won a gold medal at Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament which match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria.
- 2022 Strandja memorial boxing tournament- She won a gold medal at the 73rd Strandja memorial boxing tournament gripped in Sofia, Bulgaria. Nikhat Zareen fought against Ukraine’s Tetiana kob, who was a three-time European contest medalist.
Zareen’s Performance in 2022
Nikhat has played so well. Nikhat got off to a beautiful start and hit some sharp punches to hastily take the upper hand in the opening three minutes against confident Jutamas Zareen was in topmost form as she used her technical brilliance and covered to court well to outwit her nimble-footed challenger
The 25-year-old Nikhat Zareen took full edge of her long reach and continue her dominance against the Thai boxer, whom she had overpowered in the 2019 Thailand Open semi-final. Even so,Jutamas tried to fight back in the second round with a counter-attacking display but barely managed to cause any difficulty for the swift-moving Nikhat,who looked in full control.
Counter to her Thai opponent in the final, Zareen fought with brilliance and brought home the gold medal. The referees grooved the bout 30-27, 29-28, 29-28,30-27,29-28 in the Indian’s favour.
Hitting directly, clear and powerful punches proved to be blessing as Nikhat threw caution to the wind in the final round and kept attack endlessly before securing the gold quite comfortably.
Dream to trend on Twitter
After her stupendous victory, Zareen laughed and talked to media in her press conference and she asked ‘First tell me, am I trending on Twitter? It was always my dream to be a trend on Twitter and to achieve something for my country at the world level is the biggest achievement.
Asked about her journey after the gold medal win, Zareen said it was not easy. Nikhat had to work extra hard to make her impression. Because she fights in the same category as the legendary senior “Mary Kom”. Strengthened by the difficult situations in her career, she has espoused a combative approach where “whatever happens I have to fight and give my best”.This is all because of my family support. Nikhat Zareen also announced that she will now be focusing a gold medal at the upcoming Olympics.
Separately two other Indian Boxers Manisha (57kg) and Parveen (63kg) secured 3rd place winning Bronze medal in the championship this year. Prime Minister of India “Narendra Modi ” Tweeted congratulate her on fantastic Gold medal win at the Women`s World Boxing Championship.” He tweeted our boxers have made us proud! Nikhat said that the PM’s tweet is a matter of pride to her.
