Nikhat Zareen wins bronze: Nikhat Zareen, who had earlier defeated two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals, took a drastic hit on Saturday against her opponent, Turkey's Busenaz Cakiroglu in the 51kg category. The Indian boxer faced a defeat at the hands of the 2019 World Championships silver-medallist Cakiroglu in the semifinal of the Bosphorus Boxing Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey.
Zareen, who had earlier defeated 2019 world champion Paltceva Ekaterina of Russia in the pre-quarterfinals, looked unfazed and confident against her opponents in the ongoing tournament. She stamped her authority right from the beginning but this time she failed to prevail and lost 5-0 to Cakiroglu, who is a European Games gold-medallist.
Zareen however, did ensure a bronze medal for herself.
"I had to work hard and overcome hurdles including talk that boxing is not for women," she had said earlier this month before joining the Indian contingent at the tournamentย in Istanbul. "I had to tell people that nothing will happen to my face and my beauty will be intact," she added.ย The former world junior boxing champion said her father once told her 'Boxing is not for women, is what society thinks & that it's a men's sport' and hisย words inspired her to pursue a career in boxing.
"These very words challenged me and I wanted to go out there prove that boxing doesn't care whether you are a man or a woman. It's the desire and aspiration that should matter. Boxing for me is more to do with the attitude and my sense of pride," Zareen, who hails from Nizamabad in Telangana, said.
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