Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam): Five-time World Champion MC Mary Kom (48kg) remained on course for a fifth gold medal after making the finals along with Sonia Lather (57kg) at the Asian Boxing Championships here Tuesday.
However, there was disappointment for India as well with four-time gold medallist L Sarita Devi (64kg) settling for a bronze medal after losing to China’s Dou Dan in the semifinals.
Mary Kom defeated Japan’s Tsubasa Komura in a unanimous 5-0 verdict to make the summit clash for the fifth time in her six appearances at the event.
Should she go on to win the final Wednesday, which will be against North Korea’s Kim Hyang Mi who got the better of Mongolian Nandintsetseg Myagmardulam, the Indian would be claiming her first Asian gold medal in the 48kg category.
The Mary Kom-Komura battle once again, was a bout fought largely on defensive tactics. The Japanese boxer seemed too wary to go near the Indian, who had to quite literally lunge at Komura for her right hooks to connect.
Mary Kom’s patience with Komura’s tactics ran out in the second round and she increased the pace and ferocity of her own attacks to unsettle the Japanese.
The shell guard to stave off Komura’s feeble right straights ensured that the Manipuri hardly took any blow in what turned out to be a lopsided contest.
Sonia, in contrast, had to steer past a very aggressive Yodgoroy Mirzaeva, who lacked accuracy in placement of punches but wasn’t lacking in persistence.
Mirzaeva’s wild swings were easy to deflect for the Haryana-boxer, a former silver medallist at this event, but it was nonetheless a draining contest given the Uzbek’s relentless attempts at connecting something.
In the end, Sonia was unanimously adjudged the victor and she will be up against China’s Yin Junhua in the summit clash which will also take place Wednesday.
Meanwhile in another bout, Shiksha (54kg) ended with a bronze medal after being outpunched by Chinese Taipei’s former youth world champion Lin Yu-Ting in the semifinals.
Also signing off with a bronze medal was Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg). Priyanka lost to Korean Oh Yeonji in the semifinal.
Sarita fought well against Dan in her semifinal bout. But the fleet-footed Chinese ensured that Sarita did not connect with her punches, while she kept on accumulating points with some stinging left jabs. Sarita tried her best to corner Dan in the third and final round, but could not do so. In the end, the judges handed a unanimous verdict to Dan.
Press Trust of India
