Mary Kom, Sonia Lather in Vietnam final

New Delhi: Five-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom and former Asian Championship silver medallist Sonia Lather entered their respective finals at the Asian Boxing Championships in Ho Chi Mohn City, Vietnam, on Tuesday.

Mary lined up a shot at a fifth gold medal at this event, beating Japan’s Tsubasa Komura 5-0 and takes on Hyang Mi Kim of Korea in the title round.

Sonia Lather too was in imperious form against Mirzaeva Yodgoroy of Uzbekistan in the 57-kg category semi-final and face Jin Junhua of China for the gold.

Mary used her all experience in the 48-kg semi-final against Komura. Komura maintained a safe distance through the opening round, hoping to put pressure in the next rounds. But Mary still found a way to land punches.

The Indian, fighting at this weight for the first time at the Asians, upped the ante in the second round and picked up crucial points.

With the balance in her favour, Mary avoided anything thrown at her to emerge winner.
“I am happy to be in the finals in my first comeback tournament itself. It was a tough fight and now I have to get ready for the final,” she said.

Sonia too was confident about the final, saying: “It has been a good tournament so far, and I will do my best in the finals.” In other semi-finals, five Indian fighters went down.

Sarita Devi lost to China’s Dou Dou in the 64-kg competition, Shiksha went down to Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan in the 54 kg class while Seema Poonia couldn’t get the measure of Ismatova Guzai of Uzbekistan in the 81kg+ competition. 

Lovelina Borgohain (69-kg) went down to Valentina Khalzova of Kazakasthan while Priyanka Choudhary lost to Oh Yeonji of Korea in the 60-kg category.