New Delhi, 26 Mar: Nikhat Zareen continued to grow in stature as she added a second World title to her swelling trophy cabinet while Lovlina Borgohain broke her \u2018bronze jinx\u2019 to claim her maiden gold medal at the marquee event in New Delhi on Sunday.
\nNikhat upstaged two-time Asian champion Vietnam\u2019s Nguyen Thi Tam by a 5-0 verdict to take the light flyweight title infront of a packed KD Jadhav Indoor Hall.
\nTwo-time bronze medallist Lovlina, on the other hand, defeated Caitlin Parker of Australia 5-2 to win her maiden World title.
\nWith the win, Nikhat becomes only the second Indian after the legendary MC Mary Kom to win the title of the prestigious tournament twice.
\n\u201cI am very happy that I have become a world champion for the second time, especially in an Olympic category,\u201d Nikhat, who won the 52kg title last year, said after her bout.
\nThe first bout of the day between the two Asians was an exciting affair that went down to the wire.
\n\u201cToday\u2019s bout was the toughest for me, she is an Asian champion and my next target is Asian Games and I might meet her, so I will work hard,\u201d Nikhat said.
\n\u201cIt was a roller coaster bout, she got warning, I got warning, she got count so did I. But I went all out.\u201d
\nNikhat, who has moved down from her preferred 52kg, looked tentative at first as Tam was the first one to attack. But after a few seconds, the home favourite leapt forward to attack. She then landed two right hooks, followed by straight jabs.
\nTam was handed a penalty point for clinching further, tilting the result in Nikhat\u2019s favour as she took the first three minutes by an unanimous verdict.
\nBut Tam made a strong comeback as she launched into attack mode. The southpaw landed several punches, forcing Nikhat to play with her head down that earned her a penalty point. The Vietnamese managed to take the round 3-2.
\nIn the final three minutes, both boxers went for broke and attacked each other relentlessly.
\nIf Nikhat\u2019s powerful right cross forced the referee to give Tam the eight count, Tam\u2019s jab compelled the referee to do the same to the Indian.
\n\u201cFor me, this is the first major competition in this category after the Commonwealth Games, which did not have much competition.
\n\u201cBut here, countries from all over the world competed and had back-to-back matches also, my body was a bit slow in some matches. I will learn from these experience and try to become stronger,\u201d Nikhat, who has already qualified for the Asian Games, said.
\nOn Saturday, Nitu Ghanghas (48kg) and Saweety Boora (81kg) were crowned world champions in their respective weight categories.
\nHosts India matched their best-ever performance in terms of gold medals.
\nIndia had won four gold in the 2006 edition at home which was also the country\u2019s best ever performance with a haul of eight medals, including a silver. PTI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 26 Mar: Nikhat Zareen continued to grow in stature as she added a second World title to her swelling trophy cabinet while Lovlina Borgohain broke her \u2018bronze jinx\u2019 to claim her maiden gold medal at the marquee event in New Delhi on Sunday. Nikhat upstaged two-time Asian champion Vietnam\u2019s Nguyen Thi Tam by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}