Sarita, Sonia and Lovlina enter semi-final of Asian boxing meet

HO CHI MINH: The seasoned L Sarita Devi (64kg) along with two other pugilists advanced to the semifinals and assured themselves of medals as India enjoyed another fruitful day at the Asian Women’s Boxing Championships here.

Apart from Sarita, world championships silver-medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) also entered the semi-finals.

Sarita, a former world champion eyeing her sixth medal at the Asian meet, defeated Maftunakhon Melieva of Uzbekistan, while Sonia edged past Kazakhstan’s Nazym Ichshanova in the quarterfinals.

Borgohain defeated Erdenetuya Enkhbaatar of Mongolia by an unanimous decision.

Sarita, who returned to the amateur fold after trying her luck in the professional circuit earlier this year, took full advantage of her opponent’s reluctance to attack and connected some lusty right hooks to take the upperhand early in the bout.

At the very beginning of the second round, Melieva faced a standing eight count after a flurry of combination punches from the Indian left her dazed. Melieva gave a better account of herself in the final three minutes but Sarita was up for the challenge and displayed some fine ringcraft to dodge the attacks.

Sonia, on the other hand, had to stave off a stiff challenge from Kazakhstan’s Nazym Ichshanova in a split verdict to enter the last-four stage, assuring herself of her second medal at the event.

She is a former silver-medallist at the continental meet.

A very aggressive Sonia had Ichshanova on the backfoot early on, the sheer ferocity of her punches standing out.

Although Ichshanova tried her best to match the power, the Indian did just about enough to get a split verdict in her favour.

Earlier, India were not off to a great start as Nation’s Cup gold-medallist Neeraj (51kg) went down in a unanimous verdict to Chinese Taipei’s Chol Mi Pang in her quarterfinal contest.