Indian boxer Mary Kom recently defeated Nikhat Zareen in the ongoing Women’s Boxing Olympic trials of the 51 kg category. Now she has booked herself a place in the Olympic qualifiers!
She is the only woman to become six-time World Amateur Boxing Champion and to win a medal in each of the seven world championships. Also, she is the only woman who has won eight world championship medals.
Thirty-six years old Mary refused to shake hands with Zareen after the match because Zareen had demanded a fair chance to contest the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers, she had written to the sports ministry challenging the Boxing Federation of India’s (BFI) decision.
After winning the match, Mary refused to shake hands with Zareen saying, “if she wants others to respect her, then she should first respect others.” Zareen felt hurt by Mary Kom’s behavior. Mary’s gesture has hurt Zareen as Mary had refused to hug her.
Zareen is just 23 years old, much younger than Mary Kom. So, if she did anything that hurt Kom, then she should have shown her sportsman spirit and forgiven her—as both were playing to represent India. This was not expected from Kom. In every sport, these kinds of incidents happen all the time.
For Zareen, it would be better to forget all this and look forward to future opportunities. She will get many chances; a lot of opportunities are waiting for her. Meanwhile, she needs more practice to tackle boxers like Mary Kom.
In 2016 Rio Olympics, Mary could not qualify for the event, but now, she has booked herself a berth at the qualifiers. She will need to put in more effort to qualify because she will face many top boxers from across the world, and a single mistake can throw her out of the event. The whole country is expecting a medal from her!