Olympic bronze-winning boxer MC Mary Kom today progressed to the semi-finals of the AIBA Asian and Oceanian Olympic qualifiers in China, defeating opponent Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines 3-0 in the flyweight category.
Her colleague Laishram Devendro Singh (49kg), has also booked himself a spot in the semifinals, beating Tu Po-Wei of Taipei 3-0.
Indian hopefuls Mary Kom and Shiva Thapa are both top-seeded in their respective categories, with Thapa having so far progressed to the final eight. He will play his semi-final bout tonight.
Meanwhile, boxer Dheeraj Rangi saw his campaign ended after losing his final eight bout in the 60kg category to the Philippines' Charly SuaTharez 0-3. Suarez is seeded second.
India started off with a number of strong boxers at the qualifiers, although most of them crashed out in teh earlier stages of the tournament, among them Pooja Rani, Satish Kumar and Sumit Sangwan, all of whom lost their opening bouts.
Devendro Singh and Shiva Thapa both represented India at the 2012 Olympic Games in London; Devendro was knocked out in the quarterfinals after a loss to Ireland’s Paddy Barnes, while then-18-year-old Thapa became the youngest ever Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics in 2012, although he lost in the first round.
MC Mary Kom, meanwhile, is one of India's most well-known Olympians and likely the country’s most significant medal hopeful at the Olympics; the only Indian female boxer to qualify in London, she finished with a bronze medal at the tournament and with her strong performances at the qualifiers in China looks to be on track for a medal in Rio.
Update: Shiva Thapa has won his quarterfinal bout against Arashi Morisaka of Japan 2-1, and is also in the semi-finals of the Rio qualifying event in China.
