The person to whom the former BCCI chief selector has gifted the car is a world champion, but she has not earned this title by winning the Cricket World Cup. She has got this recognition in the boxing ring. We are talking about world champion Nikhat Zareen. Although Zareen has defended her world champion title last year i.e. in 2023. But, in the year 2022, when she came for the first time as a world champion, former BCCI chief selector V. Chamundeshwarnath had gifted her a car.

V. Chamundeshwarnath has been the chairman of the junior selection committee of BCCI. He gifted an MG Astor car to Nikhat Zareen.

Actually, this was a promise made to Nikhat which he kept. Actually, before going to the World Championship, he had told Nikhat that if she returned with a gold medal, he would gift her a car. Now Nikhat Zareen, who received a car as a gift in exchange for the World Championship medal, will have the challenge of winning a gold medal in the Paris Olympics.

Nikhat will enter the Olympics for the first time

Paris will be the first Olympics for Nikhat Zareen. Nikhat won the World Championship title in Istanbul in 2022 and in New Delhi in 2023. Meanwhile, she also became the Commonwealth champion in Birmingham in 2022.

But, Nikhat Zareen, who has been a stubborn, passionate and brave player since childhood, will not be at peace until she adds an Olympic medal to her kitty.

Stubborn, passionate and brave… the story of Nikhat Zarin

Nikhat Zareen was born on 14 June 1996 in Nizamabad, Telangana in a conservative Muslim family.

Nikhat has 3 more sisters. But in childhood she was the most mischievous. Nikhat would often fight with children and climb trees. Her father Mohammed Jameel Ahmed has played a major role in shaping Nikhat's career. Mohammed Jameel Ahmed himself has been a footballer and cricketer. Initially, Nikhat was more interested in sprinting, so her father started training her for that. But soon boxing caught Nikhat's attention.

Nikhat started boxing from a local gym where she used to compete with boys, a big reason for which was that there were no girls in this sport at that time. She was the only girl to go to the local gym and practice boxing. For the first year, her father trained her. But, after that she joined the SAI center in Visakhapatnam, where she started her training under the supervision of Dronacharya award winning coach IV Rao.

Struggle to make place in senior team

In 2011, she became the junior and youth world champion. In 2013, she again entered the ring of the Youth World Championship, where she won a silver medal.

After this, the doors of entering the senior boxing ring opened for her. However, making a place in the senior team was not so easy for Nikhat. This is because the 51 kg category in which Nikhat fights already had big names like Mary Kom and Pinky Jangra.

In 2015, Nikhat got entry into the national camp for the first time, where she was advised to go for the selection trials for the 54 kg weight category to participate in the 2016 World Championship. Nikhat took this advice as a challenge. She not only won that trial but also reached the quarter finals in the 2016 World Championship. Nikhat was happy with this too, her confidence increased because she had done all this in a weight category higher than hers.

Mary Kom lost in the trials for Tokyo Olympics

In 2017, Nikhat was out of the ring for a year due to a shoulder injury. But in 2018, she made a comeback and made her name famous by winning the silver medal in the Belgrade Winner International Championship. Before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the opportunity also came when Nikhat had to fight her idol Mary Kom in the selection trials. However, Nikhat lost this match but she was not sad because she had lost to Mary Kom.

The flag will fly in Paris

Nikhat could not go to Tokyo. But with 2 World Championship titles, she has prepared herself well for the Paris Olympics. Her preparation is tremendous and in such a situation the hope of a gold medal is not meaningless.