Indian women boxers made a promising start to their Asian Games campaign with Mary Kom, L. Sarita Devi and Pooja Rani advancing to the quarterfinals by unanimous judges’ decisions in their respective categories here on Saturday.
Mary Kom registered a 3-0 victory over Yeji Kim of South Korea in the flyweight (48-51kg) round of 16 match. She next plays China’s Haijuan Si on Sunday.
Sarita Devi defeated Chungson Ri of North Korea 3-0, and will face Mongolia’s Suvd Erdene Oyungerel next.
In the middleweight (69-75kg) round of 16 bout, Pooja won 3-0 over Mongolia’s Undram Erdenesoyol and faces Chinese Taipei’s Dara Flora Shen next for a place in the semifinals.
Mary Kom began aggressively and comfortably won the first round 10-9. Round two began in similar fashion with the Indian landing a flurry of punches and pocketing the round 10-9.
She used her experience to good effect, mixing round-arm punches with body shots and straight punches to keep her opponent on the backfoot.
She proved her supremacy in all areas, exhausting her opponent and wrapped up the contest comfortably in the third round.
