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Rediff.com  » Sports » Asiad: Mary Kom punches her way into final; Sarita, Pooja settle for bronze

Asiad: Mary Kom punches her way into final; Sarita, Pooja settle for bronze

Last updated on: September 30, 2014 21:15 IST
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Mary Kom

India's Mary Kom celebrates. Photograph: PTI

India's M C Mary Kom (51kg) continued her winning run to enter the summit clash of the mega-event in Incheon on Tuesday.

Complete coverage: 2014 Asian Games

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India's best medal hope and former five-time world champion M C Mary Kom scored a convincing 3-0 victory over her taller Vietnamese opponent Ler Thi Bang.

Two of the ringside judges adjudged her the winner by giving her 40-36 score in the four rounds combined while the third put her 39-37 ahead on points.

Mary was a clear winner even though she was the shorter of the two southpaws, she easily came inside the Vietnamese boxer's territory to score with jabs and rights to the face.

Mary, who won a bronze in the 2010 Asian Games and the 2012 Olympic Games before taking a break from the sport, is now assured of at least a silver medal.

She will now fight against Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan who earned a 3-0 verdict over N Myagmardulam of Mongolia in the other semifinal bout.

"I will keep my focus because a gold has to be won for the country," she said.

L Sarita Devi (60kg) had to settle for a bronze medal despite dominating her semifinal bout in Incheon on Tuesday.

What triggered massive outrage was Sarita's loss which left the Manipuri in tears. Up against home favourite Jina Park, Sarita, the Commonwealth Games silver-medallist, went down 0-3 despite clearly being the better boxer.

The other Indian woman boxer in fray, Pooja Rani (75kg), also had to settle for a bronze after losing a closely-contested semifinal bout to China's Li Qian.

Later, Pooja put a spirited performance against Qian but eventually lost the bout 2-1 to finish a bronze-medallist.

India's women sailing duo bag historic bronze

India bagged their first-ever medal at the Asian Games women's sailing competition as Varsha Gautam and crew Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan won a bronze in the 29er women's Two Person Dinghy event in Incheon, on Tuesday.

16-year-old Varsha and 18-year-old Aishwarya won the 11th and penultimate race and then finished second in the final race to log 25.0 net penalty points, four behind silver medal winners Rui Xi Priscilla Low and Rui Qi Cecilia Low of Singapore at the Wangsan Sailing Marina.

The gold went to Thai duo of N Poonpat and N Waiwai (19.0 net penalty).

Indian team manager Cdr K D Singh sounded very pleased with the duo's show.

"Varsha is just 16 years old. This is the first ever medal for India in women’s sailing at the Asian Games. I am very happy for them," said Singh.

"The winds were not good initially and the races got postponed, but later the conditions were good for sailing," he said.

Nethra Kumanan ended seventh out of eight sailors in the women's one person dinghy in Laser Radial class and Ramya Saravanan also managed a similar position in the Optimist class.

In the Optimist Men's One Person Dinghy, 12-year-old Chitresh Tatha ended sixth.

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