Sonia Lather has defeated Polish boxer Rygielska Aneta 3-0 in the quarter finals of the ongoing AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships to sail through to the last four stage, thereby sealing the only medal finish for India at this year’s meet of the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Astana.
In what has been a rather disappointing Tuesday that saw four out of the five Indian women in contention bow out of the last eight, 24-year-old Sonia kept the Indian ship afloat with a clinical performance to follow up her 3-0 round of 16 triumph over Germany’s Nomin Deutsch. She will now lock horns with Aizhan Khojabekva of Kazakhstan for a place in the finals of the 57kg category, which, unfortunately, does not feature at the Rio Olympics.
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The Indian show at the 2016 tournament has not yielded much to celebrate, with the three contenders for an Olympic berth – MC Mary Kom, Laishram Sarita Devi and Pooja Rani – all getting eliminated in the earlier rounds. The non-Olympic categories had five Indians who reached the quarter-finals that have been contested today and the results are as follows:
- Sarjubala Shamjetsabam lost her bout 0:3 to Kazakhstan's Nazym Kyzaibay in the 48kg category.
- Young Nikhat Zareen was the next Indian pugilist to hit the ring as she took on China’s Piaopiao Liu in the 54kg quarters which ended with her getting handed a similar result by the third-seeded Chinese.
- Following Sonia’s victory, it was a downhill story once again as her fellow Indians Saweety Boora and Seema Poonia both crashed out from their respective 81kg and +81kg categories. Turkish Elif Guneri was the one to dismiss Saweety while Seema met her expulsion from the championships via the gloves of Kazakhi boxer Lazzat Kungeibayeva.
