Nikhat Zareen won a gold medal at the Women's World Boxing Championships after defeating Thailand's Jutamas Jitpong 5-0 in the 52kg final.
Follow Us
Nikhat Zareen won a gold medal at the Women’s World Boxing Championships. She is the fifth Indian woman to win a gold medal at the World Championships. Of those four women, other than Nikhat, Mary Kom has won the most gold at the World Championships, bagging six medals. Nikhat Zareen won her gold by beating Jutamas Jitpong of Thailand 5-0 in the 52kg (flyweight) final of the Women’s World Boxing Championships. Nikhat lived up to the hype, thrashing Jitpong without breaking a sweat, with the judges scoring the fight 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, and 29-28 in favor of the Indian. This is Nikhat’s second victory over Jitpong, who she defeated at the 2019 Thailand Open.
With an incredible win and a gold, Nikhat has made not just her family proud but her country as well. Representing India, she did a job well done. Coming from a preservative middle-class family her journey was not easy. She had to carve the way to reach the top. But, still, her parents supported her and her dreams. Her father Mohammed Jameel Ahmed used to work in Gulf as a Sales Officer and her mother Parveen Sultana is a housemaker. Her siblings are all girls and as Indian society is, it was all challenging for the young woman.
But her career took a quick turn when she met her coach Shamsamsuddin. As a great coach should be, he used to train and look after her regiment himself. Shamsamsuddin was very impressed by Nikhat from the start because she wanted to do big in the boxing world. Nikhat started her boxing career at the young age of 13 and within the learning period of 6-months, she won the state championship gold in Karimnagar and was selected for the Punjab Rural Nationals, where she won the gold medal.
Zareen was named the ‘best boxer’ in Erode three months after winning gold in the sub-junior championships (Tamil Nadu). Nikhat was soon accepted into the Sports Authority of India camp in Visakhapatnam, where she was coached by Dronacharya I. Venkateswara Rao. Her incredible performance continued in Antalya, where she won gold in the 2011 World Junior & Youth Championship for girls after eight months of training. Nikhat’s family also remembers Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao’s 2014 monetary incentive of Rs. 50 lakhs as a generous gift.
READ MORE: Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte – Fury Knocks Out Whyte in the 6th round
The 25-year-old has won bronze at the 2019 Asian Championships and beat Caroline De Almeida of Brazil in the semi-final. She had previously defeated Charley-Sian Davison of England 5-0 to secure India’s first medal at the Championships. Manisha Moun (57kg) and newcomer Parveen Hooda (63kg) will both take bronze and Nikhat with a gold made it a moment of celebration. Nikhat had won the Nationals the previous year, and with tonight’s victory, the 25-year-old fighter extended her hot streak in 2022. Nikhat had won two gold medals at the Strandja Memorial in February, making her the first Indian lady boxer to do so.
