It's been a bitter rivalry for the last few years but MC Mary Kom and Nikhat Zareen have put the past behind them and came together to celebrate India's newest gold medal at the World Championships.
Boxing legend Mary visited Nikhat at the Sports Authority of India's IGI Stadium in New Delhi, days after the 25-year-old returned home after winning the gold at the World Championship in Turkey last week.
Nikhat posted a picture with her 'idol' and captioned it, 'No victory is complete without your idol’s blessings'.
Nikhat and Mary both now compete in the flyweight category after Mary had to move up one category to be able to compete in the 2012 Olympics, which did not include her 45kg event, in which she had won several World Champion gold medals.
When Mary made her bow at the London Games when women's boxing made it's debut at the Olympics in 2012, Nikhat Zareen had just broken into the scene, winning the Junior World Championship in 2011.
Their paths crossed in 2019 when Nikhat became a strong contender as well in the flyweight category and asked for a trial against Mary for a spot in the 2020 World Championships. She was forced to write to the Sports Ministry to ask for a trial after the Boxing Federation of India gave Mary an automatic qualification spot.
The trials for the Worlds did not take place but there was a trial for the Tokyo Olympics and Mary won the bout held at the IGI Stadium in December 2019. As much as there was controversy before the bout, after it as well both competitors claimed the other showed poor sporting spirit. Mary went onto compete in Tokyo while Nikhat continued to focus on her training and won the Nationals in 2021.
Come 2022 and Nikhat emerged as an even stronger rival for Mary, starting the year by beating the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist at the Strandja Memorial tournament. Meanwhile, Mary herself announced her decision to not compete at the World Championship or the Asian Games this year, in order to give an opportunity to youngsters.
Nikhat emerged the standout boxer in the trails for both events and in May, bagged her first World Championship gold medal.
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