Four Indian women, including six-time world champion MC Maykom, entered the gold medal round of the Asian Boxing Championship in Dubai on Thursday. The national team has already won five bronze medals.
India's most successful boxer MC Mary Kom set herself up to add another big medal to her name after reaching the final of the 2021 Asian Boxing Championships.
The 38-year-old Indian was all class in her semi-final bout as she beat Mongolia's Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg 4-1 and will next face Kazakhstan’s two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay, who entered the final after beating Sri Lanka's Nadeeka Pushpakumari with the referee stopping contest (RSC) after the first round.
Mary made a defensive start to her semi-final bout 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 to put pressure on Altantsetseg and eventually win the bout with ease.
Mary is returning to competitive action with this being only her second outing since the lockdown in 2020. She also recently recovered from dengue.
The boxing star is headed to the Tokyo Olympics later this year, having qualified for the event in March last year, right before the lockdown. Mary has already won six medals at the Asian Championships, including five golds.
Lalbuatsaihi entered the gold medal round of the women's 64kg after she outplayed Kuwait's Noura Almutairi. The referee stopped the contest in the second round.
Pooja Rani got a walkover in the women's 75kg while Anupama entered the final of women's plus-81kg by defeating Mokhira Abdullaeva of Uzbekistan 4-1.
Two-time World Youth Champion Sakshi had been declared the winner of the 54kg bout against top seed Dina Zholaman, of Kazakhstan, by a 3-2 scoreline. Later however, Kazakhstan appealed to review the bout and the jury decided to uphold the claim and altered the result to make it 3-2 in favour of Dina Zholaman.
Sakshi therefore settled for a bronze medal at the event.
In the opening match of the day, Monika settled for a bronze as she lost her 48kg semi-final match to Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan.
Jaismine lost 0-5 to Vladislava Kukhta of Kazakhstan in the 57kg to win the bronze medal.
Simranjit Kaur also clinched bronze in 60kg as she lost 0-5 to Rimma Volossenko of Kazakhstan in the semi-finals.
Lovilina Borgohain lost 2-3 in the semi-finals of the 69kg bout to Uzbekistan's Navbakhor Khamidova to win the fourth bronze medal of the team.
Saweety lost 0-5 to Fariza Sholtay of Kazakhstan in the 81kgto and settled for bronze.
India were assured of a historic 15 medals at the ongoing edition of the Asian Championships with three male boxers entering the semi-finals on Wednesday evening. India's previous best outing at the event was in 2019 when the team won 13 medals including two golds, four silvers and seven bronze medals.
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