Turkey:Β Indian Nikhat Zareen hoisted the tricolor in Istanbul, won the gold medal in the Women’s World Boxing Championship
Istanbul/ Delhi:Β India’s Nikhat Zareen has won the gold medal in the 52kg category at the Women’s World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. She prevailed over Jitpong Jutamens of Thailand in the flyweight final on Thursday (May 19). He put up a great fight against his Thai rival in the final and won the gold medal.
What Nikhat Said after won the final-
π£ ππππ π£ π¦π£πππ :
World Champion-@nikhat_zareen reacts after her historic π₯medal win at the #IBAWWC2022!
Watch now π#PunchMeinHaiDum#Boxing pic.twitter.com/qXXxmrEYtY
β Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) May 19, 2022
She became the fifth Indian woman to win gold in the tournament. Before him, veteran MC Mary Kom had won titles in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2018. Apart from this, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL and Lekha KC won gold medals in their respective weight categories in 2006.
Zareen was in excellent form during the match. She used her technical prowess and covered the court well enough to outdo his nimble-footed opponent. Nikhat managed to impress all the judges in the first round. She hit far more punches than a Thai boxer. The second round was tough and Jitpong Jutamens won it 3β2. Nikhat badly washed the opponent in the final round and the decision came unanimously (5-0) in his favor. Earlier in the semi-final, Zareen had won 5-0 against Brazil’s Caroline de Almeida.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also Tweeted-
Our boxers have made us proud! Congratulations to @nikhat_zareen for a fantastic Gold medal win at the Women’s World Boxing Championship. I also congratulate Manisha Moun and Parveen Hooda for their Bronze medals in the same competition. pic.twitter.com/dP7p59zQoS
β Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 19, 2022
A 12-member team took part from India. India has won the gold medal after four years. Earlier in 2018, MC Mary Kom had won. This year has been great for Nikhat. She had earlier won a gold medal at the Strantja Memorial in February. She became the first Indian female boxer to do so. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has congratulated Nikhat. He tweeted, “Congratulations Nikhat Zareen on winning the gold medal at the Women’s World Boxing Championships. India is proud of your achievement. Best wishes for your future endeavours.”
Bronze medal to Manisha and Praveen-
Apart from Zareen’s gold medal, Manisha Maun (57 weight category) and Praveen Hooda (63 weight category), playing in the world championship for the first time, won bronze medals. Both of them had to face defeat in the semi-finals. Indian boxers won one silver and three bronze medals in the previous edition of the tournament held in Russia in 2019. India has won 36 medals including nine gold, eight silver and 19 bronze in the 11 editions of the tournament so far. In this case only Russia (60 medals) and China (50 medals) are ahead.
