Shillong: Sarita Devi made a grand comeback to the international stage at the 12th South Asian Games in Shillong on Saturday punching out her Nepalese opponent Sangita Sunar in less than 40 seconds.
Just a couple of seconds into the bout. Sarita delivered a straight punch on her opponent, rattling her at the very beginning. Sarita landed a flurry of punches soon after, prompting the referee to call for TKO twice and eventually the opponent succumbed in Round 1 to present a grand comeback to the Indian boxing star.
Meanwhile, Indian boxers thoroughly dominated the quarterfinal round will all the pugilists of the host nation making the cut to the semis.
In a disappointment to the crowd that turned up, MC Mary Kom was handed a bye to the semis and hence was not seen in action.
The Indian campaign started with L Devendro Singh knocking out his Bhutan opponent 3-0 in the light fly (46-49 kg) category. Devendro dominated throughout with his agile move, good footwork and left jabs.
The next to make it to the semis was the popular Shiva Thapa who beat Nepal's Dinesh Shreshtha 3-0 in the Bantam (56 kg) category.
Thapa went into the attack right from the word go and thoroughly dominated the bout against the less experienced opponent. Thapa signed off with a right hook and two straight punches much to the delight of the crowd.
Vikas Krishnan did not disappoint either. The pugilist rompe to the semis with a round 1 TKO for his opponent in the middle (75 kg) category.
In the second session of the day, Madan Lal beat his rival 3-0 in the fly (52 kg) category to make semis while Dheeraj light (60 kg) category got the better of his Bhutan rival by the same margin to make it to the round of four.
Mandeep Jahngra signed it off in style for India beating Pakistan's Arshad Hussain 3-0.
Later both Pooja Rani and Sarita Devi handed over TKOs to their respective opponents to end the day in style.
It was a disappointing day for the Pakistan side however, as it's women team debutant Khoushneem Banu could not proceed to the semis.
