Former World junior champion Nikhat Zareen ignored issues related to her warm-up to beat Rajani Singh 3-0 and advance to the pre-quarterfinals on the opening day of the National women's boxing championship here on Saturday.
Nikhat, who competed in the World championship in May and lost in the quarterfinals of that Olympics qualifying event, took some time to find her rhythm against an aggressive Rajani.
The Hyderabad girl used her defensive skills to evade Rajani's punches and delivered some clean ones in the first round. Nikhat initiated the attack in the next but her opponent from Uttar Pradesh was ready with her straight ones.
Banking on her footwork, Nikhat changed her strategy to land accurate counter-punches and right-left combinations to tame Rajani.
“I am not happy with today’s performance. I had warmed up earlier but the bout was deferred, so I had to warm up again,” said Nikhat.
In a 48kg bout, Rajesh Narwal of Railways staved off wild punches from her Arunachal Pradesh rival Sita Devi to win 3-0.
Though Sita found herself on the canvas several times she regained her composure to land some well-directed punches and take the bout.
The results (preliminary rounds):
48kg: Nitu (Chd) bt Muskan Sidhu (Pun) 2-1; Monika (Har) bt S. Anju (Kar) TKO (R2); Anju Rajbhar (Goa) bt Puja Behera (Jha) 2-1; Sudesh (AIP) bt J. Deepthi (AP) 3-0; Rajesh Narwal (RSPB) bt Sita Devi (Aru) 3-0; Pallavi (HP) bt Sanasri Brahma 3-0; Maria Thomas (Ker) bt Uma Bouri (WB) TKO (R3); Pooja Tokas (Del) bt Saroj (Raj) 3-0; K. Nivetha (TN) bt Anupam Kumari (Bih) TKO (R3); Rebecca Lal (Miz) bt Madhu Sahu (Odi) TKO (R1); Sarjubala Devi (Man) bt Eva Marabaniang (Meg) TKO (R2).
51kg: Yaisana Chanu (Man) bt Abha Singh (Cht) 2-1; Manju Basumatary (Asm) bt Priyanka Devi (JK) 3-0; Anjali Mehta (AIP) bt Poonam Patel (MP) 3-0; Nikhat Zareen (Tel) bt Rajani Singh (UP) 3-0; Jyoti (Raj) bt K. Hemalatha (TN) TKO (R2); Vanlal Duati (Miz) bt Neha Prasad (Goa) TKO (R1); Meenakshi (RSPB) bt Suman Kumari (WB) 3-0; Jamuna Devi (HP) bt Sruthimol Sasi (Ker) 2-1; Jhunari Gaud (Odi) bt K. Aruna (AP) 2-1; Tensunaro Tsudir (Nag) bt Kajal Kumari (Bih) 3-0; Harshal Sutar (Mah) bt Jyoti Mundari (Jha) 2-1; Poonam Bist (Utk) bt Sunita (Chd) 2-1; Anita Mauriya (Del) bt Ramisha Lyngdoh (Meg) 3-0.
