Nikhat Zareen used to be wearing the load of expectancies, to copy her feat of remaining 12 months and win a 2nd international identify at house. Boxing legend MC Mary Kom used to be the one Indian with a couple of international identify – she has six. On Sunday, Nikhat become best the second one Indian boxer to succeed in that.
Nikhat had raised the bar via successful gold in Istanbul remaining 12 months, but it surely used to be a a long way larger problem this time. With the Paris Olympics qualification about to start, many boxers had modified weight classes. Consequently, the draw for 50kg – the bottom of six Olympic classes – used to be crowded. Nikhat additionally needed to drop to mild fly from flyweight (52kg). It used to be a large take a look at for her. On Sunday, via successful in a brand new class, Nikhat proved she is robust sufficient to be a identify contender at Paris. By achieving the overall, she had already been decided on for the Asian Games – an Olympic qualifier.
Nikhat holds the Istanbul identify ‘particular’, however mentioned the win in New Delhi used to be ‘more difficult’.
“To grow to be international champion for a 2nd time, and that too coming to a house crowd who supported me such a lot, I’m so satisfied. I devote this medal to the rustic,” mentioned Nikhat, who had a visual higher lip minimize within the frantic ultimate spherical towards Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Tam.
“This used to be a more difficult problem as a result of this win got here in an Olympic class. In the remaining international championships, I did not have to position an excessive amount of effort to regulate my weight. In this new class, I needed to strictly observe vitamin, and be very disciplined. After the nationals I did not get a lot time to arrange, however I gave my complete effort.”
She needed to grind out win after win – six bouts – probably the most she has had in a match.
“This is my first competition after the Commonwealth Games. In CWG, there is not much competition. The best from the world is here. It was a new experience for me. I had back-to-back matches, so my body was a bit slow in some matches. I will take my lessons, do more hard work and try and come back stronger in this weight class.”
“Today’s bout used to be the hardest within the match. In some way it’s excellent as a result of my subsequent goal is the Asian Games. Hopefully, I will be able to give a boost to.