Nikhat Zareen clinched gold in the 50kg category as Lovlina Borgohain will be in action in the 75kg final at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship
Reigning World champion Nikhat Zareen defeated two-time Asian champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam 5-0 in the 50kg category final at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Sunday.
With the win, she became back-to-back World Championships gold medals.
Living up to her name, the tenacious Nikhat (50kg) oozed class in her rampant display against the two-time Asian champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam and secured a thumping 5-0 win. The reigning World Champion asserted her dominance in the bout from the word go by landing accurate punches and using her quick feet to dodge the Vietnamese’s attacks.
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The Indian’s breath-taking performance saw her prevail in the first round with a 5-0 scoreline before Nguyen bounced back in the second round with a 3-2 scoreline to set up a grand slam finish. In the final round, Nikhat maintained her composure and proved why she’s one of the best in the business with a sensational attacking display that helped her seal the win by unanimous decision.
“I am extremely delighted to become World Champion for the second time especially in a different category. Today’s bout was my toughest in the entire tournament and since this was the last match of the tournament I wanted to utilize my energy completely and leave everything in the ring. It was a rollercoaster of a bout with both of us getting warnings as well as eight counts and it was very close. My strategy in the last round was to go all out and attack and I felt very happy when my hand was lifted as the winner. This medal is for India and for everyone who have supported us throughout the tournament,” said Nikhat after her bout.
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Despite shifting to light flyweight from flyweight for this year’s tournament, the 26-year-old pugilist from Telangana adjusted extremely well to her new weight category and performed at the highest of levels throughout the tournament. She notably toppled the top seed and the reigning African champ Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria, two-time World Championships bronze medallist Chuthamat Raksat of Thailand and the Rio Olympics bronze medallist Ingrit Valencia of Colombia.
Commenting on Nikhat’s victory, Ajay Singh, President of the Boxing Federation of India said, “Congratulations to Nikhat on becoming the World Champion for a second year in a row. I am sure that she will be a shining example for young girls all around the country to win gold medals for the country. She is going to be a champion for years to come and we will see an Olympics medal from here in 2024 for sure.”
Lovlina will square off against the two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Caitlin Parker of Australia in the 75kg final later.
Having secured two World Championships bronze medals in 2018 and 2019, Lovlina (75kg) will be giving it her all to ensure that her third medal in the competition is gold when she takes on the two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Caitlin Parker of Australia in the final on Sunday. Like Nikhat, the Telangana-born pugilist has also changed her weight category and has been at the top of her game throughout the tournament, defeating the highly decorated Li Qian of China in the semi-finals Thursday.
Earlier on Saturday, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora were crowned as World Champions for the first time. While the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Nitu (48kg) defeated Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg of Mongolia with a 5-0 scoreline to clinch her first World Championships medal, three-time Asian medallist Saweety (81kg) had to grind hard to secure a 4-3 win on points after the bout was reviewed against Wang Lina of China to clinch her second Worlds medal.
