Olympic qualifier: Marykom, Pinky, Meena into next round

Qinhuangdao, China: MC Marykom (51 kgs), Pinky Jangra (48 kgs) and Meena Rani (64 kgs) advanced into the next round of the 7th AIBA World Women Boxing Championships, which is also an Olympic qualifying event,  in progress at Qinhuangdao, China. However, Sonia Lather (54 kgs) and Neetu Chahal (69 kgs) lost to their opponents.


In the 51 kgs weight category Marykom was shocked when she saw Minako Ayawo of Japan charging at her from her ring corner and catching her off guard as soon as the gong was sounded for the first round. Experience and superior ringcraft saved the day for Mary as she quickly recovered her composure and managed to retrieve the situation and gain the upper hand with some quick jabs.

Mary took a lead of 4:1 points at the end of round 1 and increased it to 8:2 by the end of round 2. In the 3rd round, Ayako Minowa’s head butt caused a small laceration on the lateral part of Mary’s left eye. In round 4,  Minako was like a rampaging bull let loose and tried all her known tricks to upset Marykom’s rhythm  in vain. Round 3 ended with a score of 15:5 pts and at the end of round 4 it was 20:9 pts in favor of Marykom. She will now meet Marielle Hansen of Norway on 15 May 2012.

In the 48 kgs weight category, Pinky Jangra defeated Mirela Barudzic of Serbia by Referee Stopping Contest (RSC) in the 4th round. It was indeed a treat to watch Pinky handing out a copybook boxing lesson to her much taller opponent by delivering clean hard blows to the face and body and at the same time keeping her guard in place all the time. At the end of round 1 the score was 8:0 pts in favour of India and at the end of round 2 it was 12:1 pts which increased to 18:1 pts at the end of round 3.

Pinky ensured that the Referee finally had to stop the bout in round 4 as he had by then given four standing compulsory counts to the Serbian boxer. Pinky Jangra will now play against Lidia Ion of Romania on May 15.

In the 64 kgs weight category defeated Nikolett Csosz of Hungary by retirement in the  fourth round. At the end of round 1, Meena was ahead on pts 8:4, which increased to 16:8 by the end of round 2. By the end of round 3, Pinky was ahead by a huge margin of 24:9 pts. Finally in the 4th round, the Serbian corner threw in the towel signalling that his boxer would like to retire.

In the 54 kgs, disappointment was in store for the Indian camp as 7th seeded Sonia Lather unexpectedly lost to Elena Walendzik of Germany on points 9:18. Sonia trailed by a small margin in all the four rounds. At the end of round 1 the score was 3:5 pts. By the end of round 2 the score became 4:9 pts.

At the end of round 3 the score was 7:14 and finally by the end of round 4 it became 9:18 pts. Sonia played a brilliant game and had tried her best to increase the tempo but the German boxer was more experienced and hence staved her attacks with ease.

In the 69 kgs weight category, Neetu Chahal lost to World No.1 Seed Marie de Jong of Netherlands  by a close margin of 8:14 pts. Although it was Neetu leading at the end of round 1 by a small margin of 2:1 pts, she subsequently lost her tempo and trailed 5:6 at the end of round 2.

In round 3, Neetu Chahal got a Warning for butting with the head and the score read 6:11 in favor of Marie de Jong. Although Neetu did accelarate her punches in round 4, it wa a bit too late and she lost on pts 8:14.

In today’s (May 14) bouts, K Mandakini (57 kgs) will play against Tiara Brown of USA while in the 60 kgs Sarita Devi will play Gulsum Tatar of Turkey and in the 81 kgs, RL Jenny will meet Sarah Scheurich of Germany.