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\n Goodwell Boxing Club boxer Zinnat Ferdous (L) is action during her semi-final match of the National Boxing Championships against Bangladesh Army boxer Asia Khatun at the Muhammad Ali Boxing Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday. | Courtesy photo
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New York-based boxer Zinnat Ferdous is determined to change global perception about the female boxers from Bangladesh and shed the underdog tag.<\/p>\n
She believes that participating in international competitions is more important than winning medals.<\/p>\n
\u2018I want to do things right. I feel like I\u2019m always an underdog. As people say, she\u2019s not going to win because I am from Bangladesh. But when I do well and reach the finals, they say, oh, she\u2019s good,\u2019 said Zinnat, who won five gold medals across seven international tournaments in South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Poland, and Portugal.<\/p>\n
\u2018It happens at every tournament. Then they look surprised when I tell them I\u2019m from Bangladesh. It makes me happy that I\u2019m changing perceptions about our country,\u2019 Zinnat told New Age.<\/p>\n
\u2018So, it makes me feel good, and now I forget about the medals; I want to change perceptions by competing on the international stage, by showing that a female boxer from Bangladesh can excel and fight.\u2019<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old started her boxing journey at the age of 27. Zinnat\u2019s first campaign for Bangladesh was unsuccessful at the 19th Asian Games in China in 2023, where she was eliminated in the preliminary round of the women\u2019s 50kg category.<\/p>\n
However, she has since shown progress in her brief career.<\/p>\n
\u2018Since making my debut for Bangladesh, my boxing journey has only gone upwards. I have competed in seven international tournaments, and I have won medals in five of those. It\u2019s been a very positive journey. I see myself improving. Yes, I was disappointed that I couldn\u2019t do better at the Asian Games,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
She made her home debut at the National Boxing Championships on Tuesday, four years after representing Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
Zinnat, representing the Goodwell Boxing Club of Narsingdi in the national championship, comfortably defeated Bangladesh Army boxer Asia Khatun in the semi-final of the women\u2019s 52kg category.<\/p>\n
She will face Bangladesh Ansar boxer Afra Khandokar, the elder sister of Bangladesh football captain Afeida Khandokar, in today\u2019s final at the Muhammad Ali Boxing Stadium in Dhaka.<\/p>\n
Zinnat has now set her sights on representing Bangladesh at the Olympics, despite working 55 hours a week at Google as a full-time programmer, training for four hours each day, and spending time with her family.<\/p>\n
\u2018I feel I\u2019m stronger now; I understand the techniques more. When I see a girl, I can tell her style and know what I should do,\u2019 said Zinnat.<\/p>\n
\u2018My goal is to reach the Olympics. And, you might think I\u2019m crazy when I tell you I work 55 hours a week for Google, besides doing boxing\u2026 I try to balance everything and make it work.<\/p>\n
\u2018I typically run and train, and then in the evenings, I work US hours managing a programme at Google. It\u2019s quite challenging. Balancing everything is tough, but sometimes it\u2019s necessary to make sacrifices like this,\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Goodwell Boxing Club boxer Zinnat Ferdous (L) is action during her semi-final match of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[5398,5397,5395,5392,5394,703,49,48,5391,5396,5393,5389,82,5390],"class_list":["post-34905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-bangla-online-news","tag-bangladesh-latest-news","tag-bangladesh-news","tag-bangladesh-newspaper","tag-bangladeshi-newspapers","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daily-new-age","tag-latest-bangladesh-news","tag-most-popular-outspoken-english-daily-newpaper-in-bangladesh","tag-new-age","tag-sports","tag-the-new-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}