Mary Kom assured of 8th world medal

Six-time champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) on Thursday surpassed herself as the most successful boxer in the Women’s World Championship history by securing an unprecedented eighth medal before three of her compatriots also entered the semifinals here.

The debutant duo of sixth seed Manju Rani (48kg) and Jamuna Boro (54kg) along with last edition’s bronze-medallist and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) also made the medal rounds.

The third-seeded Mary Kom defeated a spirited rival in Colombia’s Valencia Victoria, fetching a unanimous 5-0 verdict to make the last-four stage.

Rani stunned top seed Kim Hyang Mi of South Korea 4-1, while Boro, an Assam Rifles employee, got the better of Germany’s Ursula Gottlob by a similar margin after draining showdowns. Borgohain, on the other hand, pulled off a facile 4-1 triumph over Poland’s Karolina Koszewska. “I am very happy to have secured a medal but I would be looking to make it better by reaching the finals,” the 36-year-old Mary Kom said after the bout.

Awaiting Mary Kom in the semifinals on Saturday, after a rest day on Friday, is second-seeded Turk Busenaz Cakiroglu, the reigning European Championships and European Games gold-medallist. Cakiroglu defeated China’s Cai Zongju in her quarterfinal bout.