Asian Boxing Championships: Pooja strikes gold; silver for Mary Kom
(Sourced from PTI)
Defending champion Pooja Rani (75kg) was the lone Indian woman boxer to strike gold at the Asian Championships while three others, including six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg), signed off with silver medals in Dubai on Sunday. Olympic-bound Pooja was competing in her first bout of the tournament after getting a bye and a walkover earlier.
Pooja dismantled Mavluda Movlonova of Uzbekistan with a clinical performance. She earned $10,000 as well for her marvelous one-bout show in which Movlonova was simply out of sorts, unable to keep pace with the Indian boxer's intensity. However, the 38-year-old Olympic-bound Mary Kom, and tournament debutants Lalbuatsaihi (64kg) and Anupama (81+kg) ended with second-place finishes.
All three lost tightly-contested bouts and fetched themselves prize money of $5,000 along with silver medals. Mary Kom went down in a split 2-3 verdict to Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan. It was the superstar's seventh medal in the tournament, the first being a gold that came way back in the 2003 edition. Her tournament record now stands at five gold and two silver medals.
Lalbuatsaihi lost 2-3 as well but after giving her Kazakh rival Milana Safronova a fight to remember. Lalbuatsaihi came into the Indian team as a late replacement for the seasoned Pwilao Basumatary, whose passport had expired. The Mizo boxer exhausted her rival with her counter-attacks but lost momentum in the final round to end second best.
Anupama was the last to take the ring against former world champion Lazzat Kungeibayeva of Kazakhstan. She managed to hold her own in a bout marred by excessive holding and clinching, but it was Kungeibayeva who connected better for a 3-2 win.
Mary Kom made an impressive start and clinched the opening round comfortably. The pace picked up in the second round and both Kyzaibay and Mary Kom showed aggressive intent. The Kazakh drew level at this point with her jabs landing perfectly. Mary Kom fought back in the final three minutes but that was not enough to get the judges' nod.
All gold winners got $10,000 each. On Monday, Amit Panghal (52kg), Shiva Thapa (64kg), and Sanjeet (91kg) will fight it out in the men's finals. It will be a repeat of the 2019 World Championships final in which India had lost to settle for silver.
Eight other Indians - the Olympic-bound trio of Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), and Jasmine (57kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (64kg), Monika (48kg), Saweety Boora (81kg) and Varinder Singh (60kg) - secured bronze medals after the semi-final losses. They also got prize money of $2,500 each for their third-place finishes.
