There could be no nerves on her debut for Nikhat Zareen. Properly, perhaps some when she misplaced the primary spherical on the judges’ scorecard 2-3. However as quickly as that little blip occurred, she went into the zone and emerged with a unanimous 5-0 win in her opening spherical in opposition to Germany’s Maxi Carina on Sunday.
It took some time for the 28-year-old to get to this stage and the beginning mirrored that. Zareen, masterful at sustaining vary, wasn’t dealing nicely with Carina charging ahead. It led to conditions the place she was open and received handled a couple of crisp proper hooks. It was a troublesome spherical to attain for the judges and three out of 5 went the way in which of the European boxer.
However the second spherical was the place Zareen got here alive. She needed to as a result of boxing scorecards are untrustworthy and the cleaner the punches you land, the harder it’s for judges to offer the bout away to the opposite boxer. The Nizamabad native landed two clear-as-day hooks clear on Carina. That shot continued to come in useful as each change between the 2 would finish with Zareen exiting with that shot out of vary. Carina tried to power what labored for her within the first however the Indian had figured her vary out and was touchdown at will. The decide took some extent from every for touchdown blows behind the top, however as soon as the scorecards have been in, every of the judges unanimously agreed that the two-time Zareen had taken that spherical.
Within the final spherical, she skilled clinching, a ploy others might use in opposition to her. In direction of the center of the spherical, she would try to maneuver on the within of Zareen. The technique was sound – drained arms equal powered-down punches. However in the direction of the top, Zareen managed to nonetheless join a couple of of her photographs and received a 10-9 on all 5 playing cards.
Zareen subsequent faces Yu on Thursday. The present Girls’s 50 kg World Champion in opposition to the present Girls’s 54 kg World Champion guarantees to be the primary presumably three extra robust bouts for the Indian. Since Wu has made the step right down to the 50kg class, there haven’t been many challengers to her. She beat Chuthamat Raksat on the 2023 Asian Video games – after the Thai boxer had taken Zareen down within the semi-final.
Paddlers progress
In desk tennis, Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra got here by way of their spherical of 64 clashes unscathed. Batra scored a 4-1 win over Anna Hursey whereas Akula defeated Christina Kallberg 4-0 on a powerful debut exhibiting. It’s the primary time India can have two gamers within the TT ladies’s singles spherical of 32 on the Olympics. However in a significant upset, veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal went down combating in opposition to Deni Kozul of Slovenia, to bow out of singles rivalry. After a back-and-forth battle, Sharath was main by 6 factors within the sixth recreation trying to power a decider, however the Slovenian fought again to take it to tiebreaks the place errors by Sharath value him dearly.
In archery, there was hope, however then there was disappointment. The ladies’s workforce of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, and Bhajan Kaur had an out of doors to achieve the rostrum however got here unstuck within the quarterfinals in opposition to Netherlands to lose 0-6. It was a case of missed alternatives in opposition to a lower-seeded workforce as Ankita and Deepika struggled to hit 9+ constantly, with the previous capturing a 4 at one level.
(With inputs from Vinayakk Mohanarangan)