Mary Kom storms into final of Asian Boxing Championships

The 38-year-old assured a medal for her nation.

Ace India boxer Mary Kom made her way into the final after defeating Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg in the women’s 51kg semi-final at the 2021 ASBC Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai on Thursday.

The seasoned campaigner Mary Kom made a defensive start and took her time in the first round. The six-time world champion made the Mongolian opponent work hard and looked in good touch in the next round as she landed timely and powerful punches that put pressure on Altantsetseg.

Mary Kom, who was out of action and playing only second event since the lockdown after being recovered from dengue, kept her calm and used all her experience to take charge of the game and completed a 4-1 win in the Asian Boxing Championships.

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Having won six medals already in the Asian Boxing Championships, including five gold, Mary Kom will be up against Kazakhstan’s two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay who entered the final beating Sri Lanka Nadeeka Pushpakumari with the referee stopping contest (RSC) after the first round.

Earlier in the 48kg last-4 match, Monika gave her all and fought hard but fell short against the second seeded Kazakh boxer Alua Balkibekova as she suffered a 5-0 defeat and secured bronze medal for the country.

Extending the winning momentum, two-time youth world champion Sakshi pulled off a power-packed performance and upstaged the 2016 world champion Dina Zholaman of Kazakhstan 3-2 in the 54kg last-4 clash and set up a gold medal match with Uzbek boxer Sitora Shogdarova.

Meanwhile, Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Monika (48kg) and Jasmine (57kg) secured bronze after suffering identical 5-0 defeats against Kazakh boxers Rimma Volossenko, Alua Balkibekova and Vladislava Kukhta respectively in their semi-final bouts.

More boxers will be in action

With 15 medals confirmed in the ongoing event, the Indian contingent achieved their highest medal haul, bettering the previous best of 13 from the 2019 edition in Bangkok where they finished third with two gold, four silver and seven bronze medals. The ongoing event has witnessed the presence of 150 boxers from 17 countries including strong boxing nations such as India, Uzbekistan, Philippines and Kazakhstan.

Five men boxers, including defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg), Shiva Thapa (64kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Varinder Singh (60kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) will be seen competing in the last-4 stage on Friday. Shiva Thapa, who has secured a record fifth successive medal at the Asian Championships, will take on top-seeded Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan.

Panghal will square off against Kazakh boxer Saken Bibossinov, whom he beat in the 2019 World Championships semi-finals while Vikas will face a challenge from defending champion Bobo Usmon Baturov of Uzbekistan.

During the men’s quarter-finals played late on Wednesday, Indian pugilists Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Narender (+91kg) suffered defeats against strong Kazakh opponents. Ashish went down fighting 3-2 against Asian Games Silver medallist Abilkhan Amankul while Narender lost his bout 0-5 to two-time world championships silver medallist Kamshibek Kunkabayev.

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