Nikhat Zareen loses in trials, to overlook Commonwealth Video games and Asian Video games

3 min learnChandigarhMight 14, 2026 11:04 PM IST

Two-time World Champion Nikhat Zareen exited from the boxing trials of the Commonwealth Video games and Asian Video games following a 1-4 loss to World Junior Champion Sakshi Chaudhary within the semifinals of the 51-kg class on the Nationwide Institute of Sport in Patiala.

The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) shifted from an evaluation system to trial bouts with rapid declaration of the winner after intervention from the Sports activities Authority of India (SAI). The BFI’s evaluation system was suspended after a number of complaints of alleged lack of transparency and bias.

Indian ladies’s workforce head coach Santiago Nieva stated that Nikhat was forward of the opposite boxers within the final evaluation.

“She has to show she is best than the opposite ladies. Within the final evaluation, she did barely higher than her rivals. This time, she misplaced in a detailed bout. So, she wants to stay targeted and make some changes. Conserving in thoughts the primary Olympic Qualifier is in April 2027, which is the World Championships in Kazakhstan, she would have loads of time to make a comeback,” Nieva instructed The Indian Categorical.

The coach added that Sakshi was ‘very sharp’ and that there have been many potential medalists within the 51-kg class.
“It was a great bout. Sakshi performed very effectively. In that weight class, we’ve many potential medalists. So yeah, it was a great bout. However Sakshi was very sharp at this time and managed to win,” Nieva stated.

With Sakshi, a 2025 World Cup medalist and world championships quarter-finalist within the 54 kg class final 12 months, making a swap to 51kg for the trials, together with final 12 months’s 48kg World Champion Minakshi Hooda and 2022 CWG champion Nitu Ghanghas, Nikhat was a part of a powerful discipline. Nitu was defeated by Minakshi on Wednesday. Nikhat will now have to return to the drafting board.

Nieva, who was the high-performance director earlier, shared how the two-time world champion must undertake a extra offensive method when within the ring and must make small changes. “I might say when she is boxing from exterior, she does very effectively. However there may be all the time a scope for enchancment. And her offensive recreation has improved rather a lot. However at this time she would have wanted a bit extra consistency in her offensive recreation. She must preserve engaged on these issues, and generally small changes and enhancements could make the distinction,” Nieva stated.

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Nikhat had topped BFI’s evaluation course of — a system based mostly on sparring bouts and different parameters — for this 12 months’s Asian Championships in Mongolia. At Mongolia, Nikhat had misplaced within the semifinals and missed out to an assured spot within the Indian workforce for the Commonwealth Video games and Asian Video games.

Within the males’s 55kg class, Jadumani Singh scored a 3-2 win over Pawan Bartwal to enter the ultimate, whereas Sumit Kundu scored a win over Hitesh Gulia within the 70kg semifinals. Former world youth champion Jyoti Gulia, who had misplaced within the evaluation for the Asian Championships within the 51kg, too, was competing within the trials and went all the way down to Minakshi within the quarters.

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports activities workforce of The Indian Categorical. Primarily based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports activities desk whereas additionally breaking information tales for the web sports activities workforce. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the 12 months 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has additionally been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His newest Laadli Award, in November 2025, got here for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who received India’s first gold medal on the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her uncommon options as a baby.

Nitin primarily covers Olympics sports activities disciplines along with his most important pursuits in capturing, boxing, wrestling, athletics and way more. The final 17 years with The Indian Categorical has seen him unearthing tales throughout India from so far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin additionally covers cricket other than ladies’s cricket with a eager curiosity. Nitin has coated occasions just like the 2010 Commonwealth Video games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships.

An alumnus of Faculty of Communication Research, Panjab College, from the place he accomplished his Masters in Mass Communications diploma, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev College Color holder, Nitin’s curiosity in quizzing started within the city of Talwara Township, a small city close to the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin’s pursuits lie in discovering new treks within the mountains or spending time close to the river Beas at his hometown. … Learn Extra