Nikhat selected for boxing Olympic qualifier trials
New Delhi : Nikhat Zareen has been named among the Indian women boxers who will take part in the trials for the Olympic qualifiers, thus setting up a potential showdown with six-time world champion MC Mary Kom in the 51kg category.
The women's trials will be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi on December 27 and 28.
The men's trials will be held on the same dates in Vijay Nagar, Karnataka, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) announced after the selection committee meeting that was held in the national capital on Saturday.
The BFI stated that boxers ranked first will fight the fourth ranked boxer while the one ranked second will take on the third.
It means that Mary will fight the fourth ranked Ritu while the second ranked Nikhat will take on third-ranked Jyoti.
A potential fight between Nikhat and Mary will be a culmination of a long saga of punches and counter punches between the pair in the media.
The latest of these happened at the recently concluded Big Bout Indian Boxing League where Mary pulled out in the last minute citing a back injury.
In the the 57kg category, Sonia will fight former World Champioship silver medallist Sonia Lather while Sakshi will face Manisha.
Veteran former world champion,
L Sarita Devi, fights Shashi Chopra and Simranjit Kaur will face Pavitra in 60kg.
Two-time world champonship bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain faces Anjali while Lalita takes on Meena Rani in the 69kg category.
Asian Games bronze medallist Pooja Rani will fight Inraja KA and former World Championship silver medallist Saweety Boora takes on Nupur in the 75kg category.
In the male draw, Vikas Krishan will face Ashish in the 69kg category. Vikas, who took gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, is returning to the amateur fold after a stint in professional boxing. Naveen Bora will face Duryodha Singh Negi in the other bout of the weight category.
The 2018 CWG bronze medallist Mohammed Husamuddin takes on Sachin, while the 2019 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships bronze medallist Kavinder Singh Bisht takes on 2018 CWG gold medallist Gaurav Solanki in 57kg.
In the 81kg category, Sumit Sangwan will be able to participate if he is cleared by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) of doping charges.
He had failed a dope test earlier this month. Brijesh Yadav and Sachin Kumar are the other two boxers in the category.
Ashish Kumar faces Ankit Khatana in 75kg while Naman Tanwar, Naveen and Gaurav Chauhan have been named in 91kg. Satish Kumar and Narender face each other in 91+kg.