Mary Kom storms into Asian Championships final

Ho Chi Minh City: Five-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom on Tuesday cruised into the 48-kg finals of the Asian Boxing Championships after beating Japan’s Tsubasa Komura 5-0 to stay on course for her fifth gold medal in the continental event.

The Manipuri pugilist, who is making her comeback to the squared ring after more than a year, used her tactical nous to the optimum. She was on top right from the word go and quickly figured out how to penetrate the Japanese girl’s defence.

Komura maintained a safe distance throughout the opening round, perhaps hoping to put pressure in the next rounds. But Mary still found a way to land her punches and seized the initiative.

Mary upped the ante in the second round and landed a barrage of punches to catch her opponent off-guard. With the balance now clearly tilted in favour of her, she adopted the cross-armed guard and avoided anything that was thrown at her to be announced as the well-deserved winner.

The Manipur-born boxing great will next take on the winner of the bout between Jargalan Ochirbat of Mongolia and Kim Hyang Mi of North Korea in the light-flyweight (45-48kg) category final.