India's Nikhat Zareen Wins Gold At Women's World Boxing Championships
Date
5/20/2022 8:47:59 AM
(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
India's 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 in the fly-weight final in Istanbul, Turkey on
Thursday. 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 favour.
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.
The Nizamabad (Telangana)-born boxer became the only fifth
Indian woman to secure gold medal at the World Boxing Championships
after record six-time champion Mary Kom (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008,
2010 and 2018), Sarita Devi (2006), Jenny RL (2006) and Lekha KC
(2006).
It was also India's first gold medal since boxing great Mary Kom
won it in 2018.
Nikhat got off to a lively start and hit some sharp punches to
quickly take the upper hand in the opening three minutes against
confident Jutamas, who came into the match defeating the three-time
World Championships medallist Kazakhstan's Zhaina Shekerbekova.
The 25-year-old Indian took full advantage of her long reach and
maintained her dominance against the Thai boxer, whom she had
beaten in the 2019 Thailand Open semi-final—the only meeting
between the two, enroute her silver medal finish.
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