ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Fatima Zahra became the first Pakistani woman to assure a Commonwealth Games boxing medal on Tuesday after defeating New Zealand’s Jordan Wilson 5-0 to reach the women’s 60kg semifinals in Glasgow.
The victory guarantees Zahra at least a bronze medal under the competition’s format, in which both losing semifinalists receive bronze. It also ends Pakistan’s 12-year Commonwealth Games boxing medal drought, according to the Pakistan Boxing Federation.
The 21-year-old had booked her place in the quarterfinals with a dominant opening-round victory over Lesotho’s Realboha Segoeta before outclassing Wilson to secure a place in the last four.
Zahra cruised into the women’s 60kg semifinals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with a unanimous 5-0 victory over New Zealand’s Jordan Wilson, according to Pakistan Television, the state broadcaster. (
“Fatima Zahra is the first Pakistani female boxer to confirm a medal at the Commonwealth Games,” Asghar Baloch, executive vice president of the Pakistan Boxing Federation and president of the Sindh Boxing Association, told Arab News.
“She has qualified for the semifinals, where a victory will get her a silver medal, while a defeat will earn a bronze. She not only became first female Pakistani to confirm a medal in Commonwealth Games but also ended a 12 years drought. She got Pakistan a medal after 12 long years in boxing.”
Baloch praised Zahra as “a talented and promising athlete” and said the federation was confident she could go on to win gold.
Zahra, one of two women in Pakistan’s five-member boxing squad, will face Canada’s Marie Al Mahdieh in the semifinals on Friday for a place in the gold-medal bout.
