The world's best boxing stars have arrived in India for the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships. The event kicks off today in New Delhi with more than 300 athletes from over 70 countries at the 6000-seat KD Jadhav Indoor Hall at the Indira Gandhi Arena.
This is the third time India is hosting the event after 2006 and 2018. The event concludes on March 26.
Indian boxer Nikhat Zareen, who became only the fifth Indian woman to secure a gold medal at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Istanbul last year, will be one of the leading athletes of the Indian contingent.
Who is Nikhat Zareen?
Nikhat Zareen was born on June 14, 1996, into an orthodox Muslim family. Her father, Mohammad Jameel Ahmad, played cricket and football. Nikhat was one of the four kids in the house and her father trained her to run.
Since her father took part in the sprints at the school nationals, he sent Nikhat to train for sprints at an early age.
She won gold at a district-level sprinting contest but before Nikhat progressed further, she found her calling in boxing.
Initially, her family didn’t support the idea and at age of 12 when Nikhat took a hard punch to her face, leaving a black bruise, her mother, Parveen Sultana told her father to stop sending her for boxing training.
However, Ahmed always stood by her and assured his wife that their daughter will achieve great success.
At 14, Nikhat won the first sub-junior national title and a year later, she clinched the Youth World Championship in 2011. Following her win, she started making moves at the national level.
After winning another silver at the Youth World Championships in 2013, she began her transition to the senior circuit.
She first entered the national camp in 2015, at the age of 19 but was advised to move up to the 54kg class for the national selection as there was stiff competition in her original weight category (51kg).
After recovering from a shoulder injury she announced her return to the international stage with a silver medal at the Belgrade Winner International Championship in 2018.
In 2019, she was among the most vocal boxers to oppose Mary Kom’s automatic selection for the World Championships.
Nikhat’s demand was overlooked as Mary had already qualified for the India Open Championships but the two boxers faced each other for the Olympic qualifiers in which Zareen was defeated 9-1 by Mary Kom.
A year later, she won a bronze in the Asian championships (Bangkok 2019) and a gold medal at the Strandja boxing tournament (Sofia 2019).
In the 2022 world championships in Istanbul, Turkey, she won all her bouts by unanimous decision and was crowned as the world champion.
She further cemented her status by winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022.
(Edited by : Prakhar Sachdeo)
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