Mary Kom marches into semifinals

Mary Kom beat Lynsey Holdaway from Wales 9-2 in the quarterfinal to set up a clash with Alice Appari of the Philippines, whom she had beaten in their only face off six years ago.
The mother-of-two from Manipur took a narrow 2-1 lead in the opening round and built on it in the next two rounds to be 6-2 ahead by the third round. In the final round, Mary Kom launched an all-out attack to seal the issue in her favour.

“It was not all that tough for me. I had never faced her before but didn’t have to slog too much. So far so good,” the 27-year-old said after the bout.

“Despite the increased competition, I think I can still dominate my category. I am not bragging but it hasn’t been very tough for me despite the fact that I have already played three rounds. My body is also feeling great,” she said.

Talking about her next-round opponent, Mary Kom, who was conferred the Khel Ratna award last year, said, “I know this girl. I beat her in 2004 and hopefully even this time I would win. I will try my best. I have my fingers crossed for a fifth consecutive gold.”

Dubbed ‘Magnificent Mary’ by the International Boxing Association, the Indian has the unique feat of having won a medal in each of the previous World Championships. She was silver-medallist in the inaugural edition and has not settled for anything less then a gold after that. Among other Indians, Kavita too advanced to the semifinals by beating Adriana Hosu of Romania 9-6. She will face Kateryna Kuzhel of the Ukraine in the last-four stage on Friday.

But there was disappointment as well, with Laxmi Padiya (81kg) losing 4-18 to Kazakh Marina Volnova on Wednesday night.