Sarita, Mary Kom in semis, assured of medals at Polish boxing tournament

L Sarita Devi advanced to the semi-finals to be assured of a medal along with the celebrated M C Mary Kom, who got a direct entry into the last-four stage of the 13th International Silesian Boxing Championship for women in Gliwice, Poland.

Sarita, a former world champion and Asian Games bronzemedallist, defeated Czech Republic’s Alena Czechy 5-0 Wednesday night after going past Kazakhstan’s Aizan Khojabekova in the opening round of the 60kg category the previous day.

She will now square off against another Kazakh in Karina Ibragimova in the semifinals.

Five-time world champion and Olympic bronze-medallist Mary Kom is yet to set foot inside the ring but is through to the semis owing to the small size of the draw in the light flyweight 48kg category.

India’s first and only Asian Games gold medal-winning woman boxer is returning to the ring after missing the recentlyconcluded edition in JakartaPalembang due to minor fitness issues.

Among other Indians in fray, Ritu Grewal won her bout against Russia’s Svetlana Rosja 4-1 to make the 51kg category semi-finals along with Lovlina Borgohain (69kg).

Borgohain got the better of Czech Republic’s Martina Schmoranzova.

However, Seema Punia (+81kg), Pwilao Basumatary (64kg) and Shashi Chopra (57kg) lost their respective bouts to bow out of medal contention.

Seema was beaten by Kazakh Lazzat Kungeibayeva 5-0, while Basumatary lost by a similar margin to Poland’s Natalia Barbusinska.

Shashi, on the other hand, lost to England’s Anglia Chapmen, with the decision being another unanimous verdict.

NEW DELHI: