TOKYO: India's six-time world champion and London Olympic bronze medallist MC Mary Kom started her Tokyo Olympics boxing campaign on a winning as she moved into the Round of 16 in women's flyweight (51kg) with a convincing 4-1 win on points against Miguelina Hernandez Garcia of Dominican Republic on Sunday.
Four of the five judges voted in Mary Kom's favour. The bout was eventually scored 30-27, 28-29, 29-28, 30-27, 29-28 by the five-member judges' panel.
Mary Kom, the 38-year-old from Imphal, started aggressively and unleashed a flurry of punches as she dominated the first round. Mary Kom started cautiously but launched aggressive attacks as her opponent kept a loose guard, giving the Indian a good opportunity to use her jab to telling effect. The Indian legend won the round 48-47.
Miguelina, bronze medallist at the 2019 Pan American Games, came out with more intent in the second round and successfully connected some scoring punches. Mary Kom used the right hook-left cross combination to score points and won that round too.
With two judges giving Mary Kom, a mother of three,10 points each, the Indian legend, who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the government last year, narrowly won this round too, 48-47.
Both boxers tried their best in the third and final round. Miguelina attacked a lot but could not breach Mary's strong defence. The Indian counter-attacked whenever she got the opportunity and that had all the judges giving the Indian star a perfect 10 — the round going 50-45 in her favour. IANS
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