There was little doubt that a Mary Kom bout would draw the biggest crowd. Five Indian stepped in the ring on Sunday but the the loudest cheer was reserved for the five-time world champion.
After three days of wait, the top billing of the Aiba World Championships took to the ring and dominated it. The wait on was worth it as Mary captured her first win of the tournament with an unanimous decision over Kazakhstan’s Aigerim Kassenayeva.
But another veteran of Indian boxing had to suffer a heartbreaking loss to Ireland’s Kellie Harrington by split decision. Sarita became the first Indian boxer to exit at the ongoing world championships with two others yet to fight.
Mary, fighting her second world championships, expected the pressure of home crowd but said that she has learnt to handle it better with years of experience.
“For some years now I have been handling pressure better. I knew that there will be many people in the stadium but I have experience and now I enjoy a lot more than before,” the 35-year-old said.
With some swift and clever movement, Mary got her combinations right and left her opponent high and dry. While the Kazak boxer tried moving closer to Mary, she moved back and countered on every opportunity she got.
“What Mary did was intelligent boxing and she did not fall for any trap. She defeated the same Kazak girl in Poland tournament and that was the first time so now she was better prepared. But here we wanted Mary to avoid getting hit. She did that well,” Chote Lal Yadav, coach with the Indian team, said.
Mary’s win was India’s fourth bout of the day spread over two sessions. Two boxers – Lovlina Borgohain and Bhagyabati Kachari – began their campaigns with wins while Manisha Maun continued her superb run. She entered the quarter-finals with a dominating win over defending world champion Dina Zholaman of Kazakhstan in the first session of the fourth day.
The three youngsters were impressive in their respective bouts and showed no nerves. Manisha, who had beaten a two-time World Championships bronze medallist Christina Cruz of USA in the first round, began the winning streak for India by overcoming a stiff challenge by Zholaman.
“I have beaten her before in Poland and it makes it a bit easier. I was confident. I don’t think like she is a world champion or a world bronze medallist, I just go there and box,” Manisha said.
Her bout was also a display of great technique, using her long reach and forcing her opponent to come closer to her. That forced her to take more clean punches, especially in the third round. After a slow start in the first round, which was awarded to the Kazak by two of the five judges, Manisha moved quicker and connected a few right-handed punches.
“I don’t think I should have lost that bout. It was not as close as the scores show it to be. I had trained for two years for this and this is what they do,” Zholaman fumed after her loss. “This has never happened with me before. Just because she is a home boxer they did this”.
Lovlina and Bhagyabati started with contrasting wins in the 69kg and 81kg weight categories respectively. While Lovlina won by an unanimous decision against Atheyna Bylon of Panama, Kachari had to battle hard against Irina Schonberger of Germany with a 4-1 split decision.
Lovlina dominated her bout throughout and won easily. But unlike her teammates, Lovlina admitted that she was nervous before her debut bout.
“I was nervous before this bout and it was a tough bout. So I am very happy with the win because a lot of preparation went into the this. But now I am very confident of my next bout,” she said.
Bhagyabati ended the first session with a close win over Schonberger. Boxing at her first World Championships, it was a relief for Bhagyabati to cross the first hurdle.
“I have been boxing at the national level for eight years now so there was not too much stress about this bout. But it is an important tournament for me and my Olympic dream,” said the boxer who competes in the 81kg category.
India’s hopes of a perfect day were dashed by Harrington as she won a close bout against Sarita with a 3-2 split decision. The Ireland boxer was the dominant of the two and every time Sarita tried to move closer to her, she came up with top combinations.
On Monday, four Indian will be in the ring with Saweety Boora fighting her first bout. Pinki Jangra, Simranjit Kaur and Sonia will eye a place in the quarter-final.