Mary Kom Leads The Way As India Assured Of At Least Four Medals At World Boxing Championships

The 10th AIBA Women¡¯s World Boxing Championships is finally starting to throw up its share of surprises. Former champions and Olympic medallists are falling by the wayside while debutants have now assured themselves of at least a medal from the World Championships.

The Indian contingent of 10 boxers fielded a mix of young talents and experienced hands led by five-time World Champion MC Mary Kom.

As the quarterfinals rounded off, four of them were left standing with Mary ensuring a seventh Worlds medal, remaining in the hunt for light flyweight (48kg) gold which would help her break the tie with Katie Taylor by winning an unprecedented sixth world title.

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India¡¯s richest medal haul in World Championships was back in 2006 with eight medals, when it was the host and then in 2008 when they won four medals. Mary Kom punched her way to a seventh medal with comfortable 5-0 win over Yu Wu of China. She will face a tough opponent in North Korea¡¯s Kim Hyang Mi, who Mary defeated on her way to Asian Championships title last year.

However, it was the young brigade and generation next, who have grown up idolising Mary, gave a fine account of themselves on the world stage with impressive wins to secure at least a bronze if not more by moving into the semifinals.

Three debutants ¡ª Lovlina (69kg), Sonia (57kg) and Simranjeet Kaur (64kg) ¡ª moved into the last four. Lovlina, the girl from Golaghat district in Assam, posted the most impressive win of the day in the welterweight division quarterfinals, against 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kaye Scott of Australia.

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¡°All my strategies against this boxer and all the work I put in worked today. It feels good to enter the semifinals but I am targeting gold, so I am not celebrating too much,¡± Lovlina said after her 5-0 win on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old only took up boxing seven years back. ¡°I was more into muay thai while growing up and only went to train for boxing at the suggestion of my school teacher in 2011. My physique was already good because of my muay thai background.

After my boxing training in my first sub-junior event, I managed to win gold and never looked back after that,¡± Lovlina, who narrowly missed a 2018 CWG bronze but won silver in Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia this year, said.

On her next opponent from Chinese Taipei Chen Nien-Chin, the Assamese pugilist said, ¡°I had met her once before when I lost to her. But I was still young and not a good boxer back then. This time I will definitely land more punches on her,¡± she said.

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Dadri-girl Sonia put a controversial win in the last round behind her to overwhelm Colombia¡¯s Yeni Castenada 4-1. Another 21-year-old, Sonia comes from India¡¯s boxing factory and is competing in her first major international tournament.

¡°My movements were quite fast and I fought with discipline. I want to take back gold, from my first big international event. I¡¯ll hope recover well and observe my opponent to make a good plan and strategy for her,¡± Sonia, who will face 2018 Asian Games silver medallist Son Hwa Jo of North Korea, said.

In the light welterweight (64kg), Simranjeet Kaur continued her fine run into the last four with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Amy Broadhurst of Ireland. There was however disappointment in store for the likes of Pinki Rani (51kg) who bowed out after a 5-0 loss to 2018 Asian Games flyweight silver medallist Pang Chol Mi of North Korea.

Pang, in fact, was in the talk for all the wrong reasons in Jakarta after two North Korean coaches protested in the ring after her loss in the final at the Asian Games.

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Young Manisha Maun¡¯s impressive show came to an end against 2016 Worlds bantamweight silver medallist Stoyka Petrova of Bulgaria. In the higher weight categories, Bhagyabati Kachari (+81kg) lost to Colombia¡¯s Jessica Sinisterra 3-2 in a split verdict while Seema Poonia (+81kg) lost to two-time world champion Yang Xiaoli of China.

In other shock results, Thailand¡¯s Sudaporn Seesondee reached the lightweight (60kg) medal round after beating Finland¡¯s Mira Potkonen, the top-seed here and 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist. Following Potkonen, the top seed in the featherweight division Alessia Mesiano (57kg) also crashed out with a 4-0 loss to Jemyma Betrian of the Netherlands.

AIBA cancel Bulgarian Stanimira Petrova¡¯s accreditation

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Former world champion Stanimira Petrova of Bulgaria paid the price for protesting against the judges¡¯ verdict after Monday¡¯s loss to Sonia. Like her national coach Petar Lesov, Stanimira lost her AIBA accreditation after accusing the judges of ¡®corruption¡¯.

¡°The Bulgarian boxer Stanimira Petrova has shown inappropriate behavior at the conclusion of her participation in the event. After 197 bouts in five days conducted under the highest standards of level playing field Ms. Petrova has made false and misleading statements regarding the AIBA officials,¡± said AIBA executive director Tom Virgets said in a statement