For Nikhat, a rerun of Worlds final in first round of Games

Defying logic, even Bangladesh and Nepal boxers have got a bye in the 50kg category

- Avishek Roy

World champion Nikhat Zareen will have to fight her toughest competitor Thi Tam Nguyen of Vietnam in the first round of the Asian Games on Sunday. Two more Indian boxers Parveen Hooda (57kg) and Arundhati Chaudhary (66kg) have run into strong Chinese opponents first up.

Blame it on the draw made by the Boxing Task Force (BTF) that did not take into account the world rankings and therefore no seedings were awarded. As luck would have it, Indian boxers find themselves at the receiving end of some very tough draws in Hangzhou.

This, being a qualification event for the Paris Olympics, it was surprising that recent performances of the boxers were not considered for the draws. It has led to highly mismatched fights where several top boxers are pitted against each other in the initial rounds.

In Nikhat's weight class, 14 of the 18 boxers, including Bangladesh's Zinnat Ferdous and Nepal's Susma Tamang, were given first round byes. It defies logic how a two-time world champion Nikhat was not one of them. Her road to Paris and a maiden gold medal will not be easy.