‘Woking largely on the mental side of things’ – World Champion boxer Nikhat Zareen opens up about her Commonwealth Games preparation

World Champion boxer Nikhat Zareen is preparing herself for the upcoming Commonwealth Games that will be held in Birmingham in a few days time. The Indian ace is not satisfied with one World Championship as she looks to win more laurels for her country and it all starts with the Commonwealth Games. This will be her debut appearance but her confidence is sky high as her fans hope that she delivers at the big stage.

Alongwith Zareen the Indian Women’s Boxing contingent also includes Olympic medal winner Lovlina Borgohain, 2021 Youth bronze medallist Jasmine and Nitu who is a former two time youth world champion. So it looks like a very strong women’s boxing contingent for the Commonwealth Games as the fans hope for multiple medals from the sport.

Zareen recently has shared in her interaction with Sportskeeda that she is working on the mental aspect of her game. The rising expectation of the people from a World Champion is always high so to keep that in check and also keep things under control, Zareen has revealed how she is preparing herself to be mentall strong. She has revealed that she is working with a psychologist ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

“I was going through ups and downs and took help from a sports psychologist. Since then I’m working on my mental strength, visualizing winning medals and hearing the National Anthem in the background as I stand on the podium. This technique has definitely helped me,” Zareen shared in her interaction.

She highlighted how she dislocated her shoulder and it was a bad time for her as she was down mentally and that was the period she took help of a psychologist and since then it has been a norm for her preparation. “When I dislocated my shoulder, I was going through a lot of ups and downs at the time. I then took help from my psychologist. She advised me to negate all negative thoughts by ignoring them, taking long walks and focussing only on positive things,” she added.

The Indian boxing contingent had their best outing at the last edition of the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. MC Mary Kom created history as she became the first Indian woman pugilist  to win a Gold medal. India overall finished  with a total of  three golds, three silvers and three bronze medals. Zareen is desperate to replicate her idol as she has that hunger heading into Birmingham.