In a surprising turn of events on May 14 in Patiala at the National Institute of Sports, two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen was failed to secure qualification for either the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Ireland, or the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, losing 4-1 to Sakshi Chaudhary during the women’s 51kg semifinal of the national selection trials.
Services boxer Sakshi, who just returned from winning a gold medal at the 2025 World Boxing Cup in Astana where she competed as a 54kg class athlete, made the decision to box in the 51kg class for her trials. Her successful move down to 51kg proved well-timed and rewarding as the 29 year-old Nikhat, once ranked no. 1 in the world, was rendered powerless against Sakshi’s disciplined game plan, resulting in Nikhat’s shocking elimination.
This marks yet another difficult chapter in what has been an arduous time for the boxer from Telangana, as she has struggled to regain her form after dropping out of the Olympic tournament early due to losing to eventual gold medalist Wu Yu from China during the pre-quarterfinal round in Paris in 2024.
Nikhat’s loss is not a one-off event; she also lost when trying to win an automatic berth at the Asian Boxing Championships last month in Ulaanbaatar with a major 0-5 defeat against Wu Yu in the semi-finals of the tournament, which means that she had missed out on an automatic qualification for the World Championships.
She now finds herself having to meet her Olympic qualification standards under the newly re-established trials system, as they have discarded the non-transparent assessment-based qualification system. This has left Nikhat without a safety net; she needed to qualify to compete for a place at the Olympics and did not perform up to expectations.
“I am mentally and physically drained. I haven’t been able to spend time at home properly. Since January 2025, I haven’t got a break. Now I want to take a break and want to prepare for future tournaments,” the 29-year-old, a CWG champion and Asian Games bronze medallist, is already planning for next year which will have all important Olympic qualifiers.
Sakshi will compete against Meenakshi Hooda in the women’s boxing championship final. Originally, Meenakshi was going to drop from 48 to 51 kg so that she could face Nitu Ghanghas to become champion; however, she instead moved up a class and defeated Nitu to establish herself as a champion. The new athlete to represent India in 51 kg at international events next year is not Nikhat, who has been the representative in this weight division for the last four years.
Despite the upset results from this championship for Indian female boxers, there appears to be good prospects in the future for female athletes. Preeti Pawar (54 kg) and Priya Ghanghas (60 kg) both qualified for their respective quadrennial events by reaching the finals of the Asian championships, while both Jaismine Lamboria and Arundhati Choudhary also qualified for the Commonwealth Games in their respective divisions.
Reflecting on the loss, Nikhat said, “The last two weeks was like torture for us boxers. I don’t want to blame any one person or body. But the athletes got crushed between the issue between those two (SAI and BFI). We were told the camp will start from 25th April but then the (SAI) sanction didn’t come. Then they said once the camp starts on April 29 the assessment system will also start.
“They told us that if you are missing training or modifying it points would be deducted. We also had to adhere to weight targets. First five percent body weight than four than two and then one they kept taking weight till May 10. “Then sparring session was to start on May 11. Then that also got postponed and then on May 13 the trials began,” Nikhat said.
