India’s Nikhat Zareen won the 52kg gold medal at the Women’s World Boxing Championships with a victory over Thailand’s Jitpong Jutamas in the flyweight final in Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday. Nikhat thus became only the fifth Indian female boxer after Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL and Lekha KC to win a gold medal at the World Championships. 25-year-old Zareen is a former junior world champion. Facing Thailand in the final, Nikhat fought brilliantly and took home the gold medal. The referees scored 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 29-28 in favor of India.
Zareen is at her peak as she uses her technical acumen and good cover to overtake her quick-footed opponents. Nikhat impressed all the judges in the first round as she threw more punches than the Thai boxer. The second half was tighter and Jitpong made it 3-2. With only one judge on her side in the final round, Nikhat threw all his might and slammed the door on her opponent to ultimately score a 5-0 unanimous decision in her favor.
The Nizamabad (Telangana)-born boxer became the fifth Indian woman to win a gold medal at the World Boxing Championships after record six-time champion Mary Kom (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2008). 2010 and 2018), Sarita Devi (2006), Jenny RL (2006) and Lekha KC (2006).
It is also India’s first gold medal since boxer Mary Kom won in 2018.
Nikhat got off to a vibrant start and unleashed some sharp punches to quickly gain the upper hand in the first three minutes against confident Jutamas, who went into the match beating the three-time medalist Kazakh world champion is Zhaina Shekerbekova.
The 25-year-old Indian took full advantage of her long-range advantage and maintained her dominance against the Thai boxer, whom she defeated in the 2019 Thai Open semifinals — the only meeting best between the two, helping her win a silver medal.
However, Jutamas tried to fight back in the second half with a counter-attack but was barely able to cause any problems for Nikhat, who looked absolutely in control.
Hitting his punches straight and clear, power proved to be a key factor as Nikhat threw windy care in the final round and continued to attack relentlessly before comfortably claiming gold.
“Winning a world medal has always been a dream and Nikhat to be able to achieve it so soon is extremely commendable. We, at BFI, are proud that our fighters have not only made it so. We are all proud that each of their boxing journeys inspires generations to come,” said BFI President Ajay Singh.
“On behalf of the Indian Boxing Federation, I would like to congratulate Nikhat and the bronze medalists Parveen and Manisha as well as the coaches and support staff on this achievement. Eight of our boxers made it through. quarterfinals, it was the most final and showed the power of Indian Boxing,” he added.
With Manisha (57kg) and Parveen (63kg) excellently winning bronze medals after finishing the semi-finals, the Indian team ended its campaign with three medals at the biggest boxing event in the world, which saw exciting competition in the presence of a record 310 boxers from 73 countries and also marked the 20th anniversary of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
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Of the 12 Indian boxers in attendance, eight have reached the quarterfinals of this year’s tournament – the highest along with Turkey.
With the addition of three medals in Istanbul, India’s total medal count has increased to 39, including 10 gold, eight silver and 21 bronze, in 12 runs of the prestigious event — the third-highest after Russia (60 ) and China (50).
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