Indian Boxers Nikhat Zareen and Nitu Gold Winning Moments at 73rd Strandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria

Indian boxers Nikhat Zareen (52kg) and Nitu (48kg) won gold at the 73rd Strandja Memorial Tournaments in their respective finals at Sofia, Bulgaria on February 27. For the first time, Nitu competed in the event, prevailed 5-0 over Italy’s Erika Prisciandaro, a former Youth World Championships bronze-medallist. Zareen won over Ukraine’s Tetiana Kob, a three-time European Championships medallist, 4-1.

"Both of them displayed completely different styles but both produced excellent performances," national women’s team coach Bhaskar Bhatt told a news agency over phone. "Credit to Nitu for keeping her composure and trusting her counterattacks against an aggressive opponent. Nikhat had to fight from close range throughout and she did well to land clear punches even though her opponent was not giving her a clear shot," he said.

Zareen struck gold medal at the Strandja Memorial’s 2019 edition as well. She became the first Indian boxer to claim two gold medals at the tournament.

She said, "You can call me the queen of Strandja. I am just so happy right now."

She further added, "This one is the more special of the two as I beat an Olympics medallist (Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu) in the semifinals. It is a perfect confidence booster when three major events (World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games) are lined up."

Nitu said, "I just followed my coaches’ advice. My plan was to counterattack even though this girl is also a counterattacking boxer. And since I was taller and had longer arms, she struggled throughout."