Out of competitive action for over a year, five-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom will return to the ring in an invitational boxing tournament to be held in Mongolia next month.
Mary Kom will compete in the 51kg category at the tournament scheduled from June 20 to 26.
“I have returned to 48kg but in this tournament I will fight in the 51kg category because I need some practice. However, I will be preparing in the 48kg catagory for the Asian Championships in November,” Mary Kom said.
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She decided to return to light flyweight last year after the Commonwealth Games organisers decided to introduce the category in the 2018 Gold Coast edition.
Mary Kom’s last world title in 2010 in Barbados came in the 48kg category, while four others were won in the pinweight (46kg) category earlier.
She had jumped to flyweight (51kg) after it was included in the 2012 Olympics. The Indian went on to win the bronze in the Games, besides claiming a gold in the 2014 Asiad where women’s boxing made its debut.
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“I have been training hard for the last six months and I decided to trial for this tournament because I wanted to test myself. Since 48kg was not a part of the schedule in Mongolia, I decided to compete in 51kg,” she said. “But 48kg will be my focus once I am back from Mongolia.”
Mary Kom has not competed since last year’s World Championships, where she lost in the second round and missed qualification for the Rio Olympics.
Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg) and Kalawanti (75kg) are the other members of the Indian team.
A mixed team — four men and three women — will also travel for an invitational tournament in Kazakhstan in July. The men’s team features National champion Deepak Singh (52kg), Devanshu (81kg) Gaurav Chauhan (91kg) and Parveen Kumar (+91kg) while the women’s team includes Nation’s Cup gold-medallist Neeraj (51kg) and new entrants Siwi Boora (60kg) and Lovelina (75kg).