For a brief moment at the end of the women’s 50kg final, there was confusion. The announcer read out that the boxer in blue had won, but the referee lifted the arm of the boxer in red. But Nikhat Zareen knew by then that it wasn’t her day. She had a wry smile as the referee quickly changed the decision to point to the right winner ass per the judges.
It was a silver for the two-time world champion at the 75th Strandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria on Sunday as Nikhat (50kg) went down 2-3 against Uzbekistan’s Sabina Bobokulova. On another day, the decision to raise Nikhat’s hand could well have been the right one because there wasn’t much to choose between the two.
Halfway into the opening round, Bobokulova threw both her arms up in the air as if celebrating a good punch on the Indian, but in effect, those were in response to a big punch that Nikhat had landed moments before.
Over those three minutes, there was a good case to be made that Nikhat landed more meaningful punches than her opponent but Bobokulova exuded more confidence and energy. A 1-4 decision on the scorecard was harsh on Nikhat and it would prove to be tough to overcome after she also lost a tough second round 2-3. The Indian did dominate the final stages to take it 5-0 but the damage had been done early on, meaning Nikhat has now gone two international tournaments without gold after a streak of titles leading into the Asian Games.
Serving a reminder
There was very little emotion on Amit Panghal’s (51kg) face as well but he produced a masterful display against reigning world champion (albeit in a lower division) Kazakhstan’s Sanzhar Tashkenbay to win 5-0. The second gold medal of the day for India came from Sachin (57kg) as he prevailed over Uzbekistan’s Shakhzod Muzafarov.
That Amit’s celebration was muted could perhaps be down to the fact that he is not in India’s squad for the Olympic qualifiers in Busto Arsizio, Italy, later this month, with Deepak Bhoria selected for that already. But it was a week when Amit showed he is still a force to be reckoned with, barely breaking sweat in the semifinal and coming out aggressively in the final to down a reputed opponent.
Sachin’s win against Muzafarov was also 5-0 but much closer than Amit’s as the Indian was tied on three cards after two rounds. But a 4-1 result in Round 3 helped the national champion clinch the title.
Winning India’s second silver in women’s categories was Arundhati Choudhary (66kg), who put up a superb show against reigning World and Asiad champion China’s Yang Liu but lost 1-4. The Chinese had beaten the Indian in the round of 16 in Hangzhou but here, Arundhati matched her opponent for the most part.
Barun Singh Shagolshem (48kg) also finished with silver, losing against Khodzhiev Anvarzhan of Kyrgyzstan in a fast-paced bloody bout. Rajat (67kg) went down against Kazakhstan’s Bekbauov Dulat 2-3.
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