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The Indian women’s boxers put on a splendid effort at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games with all their three boxers bagging a medal each at the Seonhak Gymnasium. Star boxer MC Mary Kom is assured of either a gold or silver as she is in the final of the women’s flyweight category (48-51-kg against Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan.
The 31-year-old Indian pugilist called the shots against Vietnam’s Le Thi Bang and turned the semifinal contest in a one-sided affair to pave her smooth passage to the final. Undoubtedly, Mary appears to be India’s best bet for an Asiad boxing gold after another iconic boxer Vijender Singh pulled out of the event owing to a hand injury.
The excitement Mary triggered in the Indian camp by winning the first bout of the day made the Indians feel that two more gold medals could be there for the taking, but the two other women pugilists – L Sarita Devi and Pooja Rani – fought hard in the semifinal against formidable opponents, but had to concede defeat and settled for bronze medals –
L Sarita Devi was up against Korea’s Park Jina in the lightweight (57-60kg) semifinals and the Indian seemed to hold the aces the end result was not a fair indication of how the bout was fought. Sarita looked the better boxer for most part of the bout, but the scoring of the three judges suggested otherwise. It remains to be seen whether India lodges an appeal against the verdict.
Pooja Rani no way disgraced herself against China’s LI Qian in the middleweight (69-75kg) semifinals as she gave her everything in her bid to make it to the final. The tactical superiority of Li proved to be Pooja’s undoing as she had to finish second best in the ring.
The Indian men had suffered casualties in the quarterfinal stage with Gautam Bhiduri (flyweight), 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist Mandeep Jangra (welterweight) and Kuldeep Singh (light heavyweight) bowing out. Indian men’s boxing fortunes rest on Laishram Devendro Singh (light weight category), Shiva Thapa (bantamweight) and Vikas Krishnan (middleweight) who all feature in the men’s quarterfinals.
Satish Kumar is the lone boxer who is yet to launch his campaign – he will fight in the super heavyweight category (+91-kg) on Tuesday having got a bye into the quarterfinals.
