It will be a ‘now or never moment’ for the country’s ace woman boxer MC Mary Kom at the upcoming 2016 AIBA World Championship, which gets underway at Astana, Kazakhstan from May 19.
The nine-day showpiece event will be the Manipuri boxer’s last ditch attempt at sealing her second Olympic berth after her memorable bronze medal-winning effort at the 2012 edition at London.
Mary muffed up an opportunity to make the cut at the 2016 Asia & Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament in China, where she missed out despite winning the bronze medal in the 51 kg category as only two finalists qualified for the Rio Olympics.
Considering the fact that she has openly declared that she would hang up her gloves after the Rio Olympics, the upcoming World Championships will have a fair share of emotions surrounding it.
Not just Mary, even the likes of Laishram Sarita Devi and Pooja Rani fell in the early rounds of the China qualifiers and would have one last opportunity to represent the country at the Rio Olympics through the Kazakhstan qualifiers.
It has to be understood that competition in every weight category is getting tougher and tougher and if somebody of the calibre of Mary is finding it hard to just qualify for the Olympics, one can well imagine how much a tough proposition it will be for Sarita and Pooja to make it to Rio.
It may be worth mentioning that unlike World Championships, which feature ten weight categories, there are only three berths for women boxing in Olympics – 51 kg (flyweight), 60 kg (lightweight) and 75 kg (middleweight). At the 2012 London Olympics, Mary was the lone representative and managed to make a podium finish amidst all the odds.
There is so much Mary has achieved for the country – five world crowns, an Olympic medal besides host of international medals to her kitty – one can still feel that the Manipuri ace pugilist will like to come out all guns blazing at the Kazakhstan qualifiers – there is little doubt that she is extra determined to leave the ‘competitive ring of her illustrious career’ on a high.
