Asian boxing: Sarita and Sonia enter the last four

Sarita Devi.

L. Sarita Devi (64kg) and World championships silver-medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) advanced to the semifinals and assured themselves of medals at the Asian women’s boxing championships here on Sunday. However, it was curtains for Neeraj (51kg) in the quarterfinals.

Sarita defeated Maftunakhon Melieva of Uzbekistan, while Sonia edged past Kazakhstan’s Nazym Ichshanova in the quarterfinals. Nation’s Cup gold-medallist Neeraj went down in a unanimous verdict to Chinese Taipei’s Chol Mi Pang.

Sarita took full advantage of her opponent’s reluctance to attack and connected some lusty right hooks to take the upper-hand early.

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 displayed some fine ring craft 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.