New Delhi: L Sarita Devi advanced to the semifinals to be assured of a medal along with MC Mary Kom, who got a direct entry into the last four stage of the 13th International Silesian Boxing Championship for women in Gliwice, Poland.
Sarita, a former World Champion and Asian Games bronze medallist, defeated Czech Republic’s Alena Czechy 5-0 Wednesday night after going past Kazakhstan’s Aizan Khojabekova in the opening round of the 60kg category the day before. She will now square off against another Kazakh in Karina Ibragimova in the semifinals.
Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom is yet to set foot inside the ring but is through to the semis owing to the small size of the draw in the light flyweight 48kg category. She had missed the Jakarta Asian Games due to an injury.
Among other Indians in fray, Ritu Grewal won her bout against Russia’s Svetlana Rosja 4-1 to make the 51kg category semifinals along with Lovlina Borgohain (69kg). The latter got the better of the Czech Republic’s Martina Schmoranzova.
However, Seema Punia (+81kg), Pwilao Basumatary (64kg) and Shashi Chopra (57kg) lost their respective bouts to bow out of medal contention.
Seema was beaten by Kazakh Lazzat Kungeibayeva 0-5, while Basumatary lost by an identical margin to Poland’s Natalia Barbusinska. Shashi, on the other hand, lost to England’s Anglia Chapmen, also a unanimous verdict.
In junior competition, Raj Sahiba (70kg) defeated Poland’s Barbara Marcinkowska 5-0 while Neha (75kg) got the better of Daria Parada by a similar margin. However, Komal (80kg) had to toil for a 3-2 win over Martyna Jancelewicz.