Who is Nikhat Zareen? Asks miffed Mary Kom
KOLKATA: A day after boxer Nikhat Zareen wrote to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju asking for a fair opportunity, Mary Kom said she does not know Nikhat Zareen. “Who is Nikhat Zareen,I don’t know her. I am really shocked by all this. I have won eight World Championship medals, including six gold. Let the Boxing Federation of India decide whom they want. How can she cry like this? She cannot lobby to get a place in the Indian team. This is not done,” Mary Kom told Republic TV.
Nikat cried foul after the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) hinted that there would no trial between her and Mary Kom in the 51kg category for participating in the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers in Wuhan from February 3 to 14. The boxer had said on Wednesday that she would speak to Rijiju after trying to contact BFI President Ajay Singh several times. And that is exactly what she did on Thursday as she also took to Twitter to post the letter. “All I want is a fair chance. If I’m not given the opportunity to compete what am I training for. Sports is about Fair Play & I don’t want to loose faith in my country.Jai Hind (sic),” she wrote.
In the letter, also published with the tweet, she brought the example of how even Michael Phelps had to qualify every single time to participate in the Olympics and also spoke about how she has been inspired by Mary Kom since she was a teenager.
She also found support from Abhinav Bindra, India’s only individual gold medal winner at the Olympics, as he re-tweeted Nikhat’s tweet with the message: “While I have all the respect for Marykom , Fact is ,an athletes life is an offering of proof. Proof that we can be as good as yesterday. Better than yesterday. Better than tomorrows man /woman. In sport, yesterday NEVER counts (sic).”
However, Mary Kom asked Bindra to stay away. “I know who is behind all this. They are from JSW and I would like to tell Abhinav Bindra that you don’t know anything about boxing and you please stay focused on you(r) shooting. I have been doing boxing for over a decade now and for how long I will continue giving trials. Don’t my records and medals speak for me?”
PINKI BACKS ZAREEN
Boxer Pinki Jangra has backed Zareen’s demand for a fair trial for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and wondered why the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) was tweaking the rules and favouring Mary Kom. “On Thursday, I came to know that Mary Kom would not be competing in the trials and will be directly sent to the qualifiers. This is not right. The same thing happened before the World Championships. We had then also raised our concerns but we were told that rules are different for different tournaments and that trials would be conducted for qualifiers,” she said.