Sports news

Nikhat Zareen becomes fifth Indian woman to win world boxing gold

THE 25-year-old boxer from the southern Telangana state beat Thailand’s Jitpong Jutamas at Women’s World Boxing Championships in Istanbul.

A 25-year-old boxer from the southern Indian state of Telangana has become the fifth Indian woman to win a gold medal in a world championship.

Nikhat Zareen on Thursday beat Thailand’s Jitpong Jutamas in the 52kg flyweight category at the Women’s World Boxing Championships held at Istanbul, Turkey.

As the new world flyweight champion’s name was called out, Zareen punched her hand in the air, hugged her opponent and broke into tears.

“It’s finally here. The culmination of years of hard work and perseverance,” she tweeted on Friday. “India, this one’s for you. We did it, together.”

The former junior world champion is the fifth Indian woman boxer after MC Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL and Lekha KC to win a gold at the world championships.

In 2019, when Zareen asked for a fair trial against India’s legendary boxer Mary Kom after being denied a chance to compete in the trials for the Tokyo Olympics, the latter had famously asked: “Who is Nikhat Zareen?”

Three years later, Zareen is a world champion – winning India’s first gold since Mary Kom won it in 2018.

After her win on Thursday, Zareen told a news conference that she would dedicate the medal to all the countrymen who supported her throughout her career.

Zareen also said it was her dream to trend on Twitter.

“Am I trending on Twitter? It was always my dream to be a trend on Twitter and to achieve something for my country at the world level is the biggest motivation,” she said.

The Muslim boxer, who hails from a middleclass family in Telangana’s Nizamabad town, said she had to overcome various odds to carve out a niche for herself in boxing.

“I had to work hard and overcome hurdles including talk that boxing is not for women. I had to tell people that nothing will happen to my face and my beauty will be intact,” she said last year during the launch of a campaign by sportswear giant Adidas.

“These very words challenged me and I wanted to go out there and prove that boxing doesn’t care whether you are a man or a woman. It’s the desire and aspiration that should matter. Boxing for me is more to do with the attitude and my sense of pride.”

Zareen joined boxing at the age of 13 in 2010. Within six months, she won a gold in the state championship. Only a year later, she won the gold in the 2011 World Junior and Youth Championships for girls in Antalya, Turkey.

Zareen’s family is elated with her historic win on Thursday, again in Turkey.

“To win a gold in the world championships is something which will act as an inspiration to Muslim girls as well each girl in the country to aim to achieve bigger in life. A kid, whether he is a boy or girl, has to make their own way and Nikhat has paved her own way,” Zareen’s father Jameel Ahmed was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi showered praise on Zareen.

“Our boxers have made us proud! Congratulations to Nikhat Zareen for a fantastic gold medal win at the Women’s World Boxing Championship,” Modi wrote on Twitter.

“I also congratulate Manisha Moun and Parveen Hooda for their Bronze medals in the same competition,” added the Indian leader.

“One for the history books,” tweeted the Indian Boxing Federation. “Nikhat Zareen continues her golden streak … Well done, world champion.”

Former Australian under-19 cricketer Jamie mitchell sues cricket Australia over sexual abuse allegations

FORMER elite junior cricketer Jamie Mitchell is suing Cricket Australia for the trauma and distress he has allegedly suffered as a result of the 1985 Australian under-19 tour of India and Sri Lanka.

On Wednesday, Mitchell’s lawyers issued Cricket Australia with a writ and statement of claim, seeking damages over the consequences of an alleged sexual assault on the tour. "That tour damaged Jamie and he has lived with the consequences for almost 40 years," Mitchell’s lawyer Michael Magazanik of Rightside Legal said. "He is making his legal claim to hold those responsible to account. This is a moment of truth for Cricket Australia. It can follow the Catholic Church's lead and engage in legal warfare with survivors, or it can address its past and take a constructive approach to the issue of historical sexual abuse in junior cricket."

In January, an ABC Sport investigation revealed Mitchell returned from the trip and told confidantes that he had been sexually assaulted on the final night of the tour in Colombo and feared that he had contracted AIDS.

On the evening of the alleged abuse, Mitchell fell ill and was placed under heavy sedation by the Australian team doctor, Malcolm McKenzie.

Dr McKenzie informed Mitchell's teammates that Mitchell was "quarantined" and nobody was to enter his hotel room, leaving a 10-hour window in which Mitchell was allegedly attacked.

Soon after Mitchell's return from the tour, the late John Miles, a respected figure in Melbourne club cricket and a member of Victorian Parliament, approached Mitchell's parents to discuss the trip and said: "I think you have a right to know that Jamie was raped."

Mitchell's parents recalled that in their shocked state, they also heard the words "Jamie told me", "someone in authority" and "doctor", the latter a reference to Dr McKenzie.

In recent months, ABC Sport has interviewed a number of men who say they were sexually abused by Dr McKenzie as teenage boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Each man said Dr McKenzie was their trusted family GP in Malvern, south of Melbourne, and that the offences occurred under the guise of legitimate medical treatment.

Upon his death in 1998, Dr McKenzie was lauded by colleagues from the Australian Medical Association, the peak medical body of whom he was once elected Victorian president.

But one survivor of Dr McKenzie's abuse told ABC Sport that at the time of his death, Dr McKenzie was facing imminent legal action from a group of abuse victims.

French open 2022 women’s Final, iga swiatek vs coco gauff highlights: swiatek defeats gauff 6-1, 6-3

FREnCH Open 2022 Women's Final, Iga Swiatek vs Coco Gauff Highlights: Iga Swiatek defeats Coco Gauff in straight sets to win her 2nd French Open title.

French Open 2022 Women’s Final, Iga Swiatek vs Coco Gauff Highlights: World number one Iga Swiatek of Poland crushed American Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 in the final to win the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday. It was the second Grand Slam title for the 21-year-old Swiatek, who also triumphed at Roland Garros in 2020. The victory on Court Philippe Chatrier against the 18-year-old Gauff, who was playing her first Grand Slam final, extended Swiatek’s winning run to 35 matches.

Follow highlights of Iga Swiatek vs Coco Gauff below.

Western Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith cops two-match suspension after headbutting Zach tuohy

WESTERn Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith has been handed a two-match ban after he was charged with headbutting Geelong utility Zach Tuohy at Marvel Stadium on Friday.

The 21-year-old was reported late in the third quarter of the Round 12 contest after he appeared to intentionally thrust his head at Tuohy during a heated confrontation.

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Tuohy emerged from the brief fracas with a ripped jersey and a red mark on his forehead, but shared a hug with Smith after the Cats claimed a 12.11 (83) to 10.10 (70) victory, their third consecutive win.

Speaking to reporters in the post-match press conference, Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge claimed he had not seen the incident.

“We’re just shaking our heads … we can’t believe what we’re seeing,” former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon told Fox Footy.

“It’s so out of character for a young man who is almost the highest profile footy player in the competition.”

Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown called it an “absolute brain snap”.

“The old Liverpool kiss,

AlbAnese's diverse new ministry is worth celebrAting, but huge chAllenges loom

COnTD. FROM PG 1

Shifting Tanya Plibersek from her beloved Education portfolio to Environment and Water was the biggest head-scratcher for many.

The inner-city MP, seen at times as a leadership rival for Anthony Albanese, will now be tasked with the diabolically difficult task of finding peace among warring states and communities over the fragile Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Plibersek also loses Women from her portfolio responsibilities. But she remains in Cabinet, and we're assured this most certainly is not a demotion.

An ECOnOMIC 'MESS' TO CLEAn UP

Clare O'Neil, meanwhile, has been given the biggest promotion, leap-frogging many of the Rudd-Gillard old guard to take the Home Affairs portfolio and a seat on the National Security Committee of Cabinet. In opposition the role was held by Kristina Keneally, of the NSW Right. With Keneally unsuccessful at the election, Albanese has given it to O'Neil, of the Victorian Right.

Despite her obvious talent, the 41-year-old was kept out of Albanese's top order in opposition. Now she's been given one of the most senior, and toughest, gigs for a new Labor government — overseeing Australia's domestic security architecture.

It's the platform from which Peter Dutton as Minister built his tough-guy image on tackling foreign interference and espionage and hardened Australia's resolve on China. He knows the patch and as Opposition Leader will now be looking to exploit any sign of uncertainty or inexperience from the new Minister.

O'Neil's responsibilities won't be quite as wide as her predecessors. Late yesterday, the Prime Minister announced he was shifting the Australian Federal Police out of the Home Affairs portfolio and placing it under the AttorneyGeneral Mark Dreyfus.

Home Affairs will still cover ASIO, Border Force and AUSTRAC along with the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. Separating out the AFP unwinds some of the "super" portfolio but O'Neil will still be in charge of one of the most sensitive and powerful arms of government. The greatest immediate challenge for the new government, however, is that faced by Labor's unchanged economic team. Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher know the economic outlook is deteriorating and have been working overtime since election day to convince voters the new government is not to blame.

PULLInG THE GAS RESERvATIOn 'TRIGGER'?

Yesterday's economic growth figures for the first three months of the year came in a little better than expected and considerably better than most comparable countries, but not as strong as the preelection budget had forecast.

The Treasurer went for the glass-half-empty interpretation. The figures, showing growth of 0.8 per cent for the March quarter and 3.3 per cent annually were, Chalmers said, "a glimpse of the mess the former government left behind for us to clean up".

The Treasurer's pessimism is understandable. Inflation and interest rates are rising, real wages are falling, and gas prices in particular are hitting levels variously described by manufacturers as "catastrophic" and "apocalyptic". Jim Chalmers blames the former government for the energy price crisis but admits there are no simple solutions. Labor's plans to drive more renewables into the grid won't help in the immediate future. One option right now would be to pull the socalled domestic gas reservation "trigger", to require more Australian gas be kept onshore. Such a move would infuriate the gas industry and potentially threaten investment. For now, Chalmers is remaining tight-lipped on what the government might do, saying he doesn't want to "pre-empt conversations". In opposition, Labor gave the Coalition little leeway for conversations. It called for the "trigger" to be pulled and for gas to be reserved to save local manufacturers. And that was when the gas price was well below today's astronomical levels. It turns out governing is not as easy as issuing demands from opposition. Still, this ministry has only just been sworn in. The full Cabinet only met for the first time yesterday. It deserves a chance to consult and carefully consider before making big decisions. With no shadow ministers yet in place, there's also some political breathing room. There's little to no pressure from the other side right now. The honeymoon, however, won't last forever.

thE grEatEst iMMEDiatE ChallEngE fOr thE nEw gOvErnMEnt, hOwEvEr, is that faCED by labOr's unChangED ECOnOMiC tEaM. trEasurEr JiM ChalMErs anD finanCE MinistEr Katy gallaghEr KnOw thE ECOnOMiC OutlOOK is DEtEriOrating anD havE bEEn wOrKing OvErtiME sinCE ElECtiOn Day tO COnvinCE vOtErs thE nEw gOvErnMEnt is nOt tO blaME.