World Boxing Ch’ships: Nikhat Zareen,Nitu Ghanghas storm into finals

New Delhi: Two of the four Indian boxers in New Delhi reached the finals of the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2023 in emphatic style on Thursday.

Defending champion Nikhat Zareen made it to her second successive final at the world meet while 22-year-old boxer Nitu Ghanghas made her maiden final of the World Championships.

Nikhat Zareen reached the women’s light flyweight category (48kg) beating Rio Olympics bronze medalist Ingrit Valencia of Colombia by a unanimous decision in the semi-final. Nikhat was dominant from start to finish as she was at her calculative best, outpunching Valencia in front of her home crowd.

Nikhat, who won the Commonwealth Games gold medal to add to her Strandja Boxing Memorial gold medal in 2022, is making all the right noise in the year before the Paris Olympics.

On the other hand, Nitu Ghanghas defeated former silver medalist Alua Balkibekova via split decision in her 48kg semi-final bout to reach the final and give herself a chance to win the Gold medal. Nitu, who also won the CWG Gold in Birmingham, had finished 5th in the previous edition of the world meet in Istanbul.