- Saturday, November 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
SIX-TIME world champion and Olympic medallist Mary Kom made an impressive start at the Tokyo Olympics by winning her 51-kilograms boxing bout against Dominican Republic’s Miguelina Hernandez Garcia in the opening round on Sunday (25).
The 38-year-old pugilist from Manipur, who won a bronze at the London edition nine years ago and is eyeing the gold in what is her final Olympics, won the game 4-1 against Garcia, a Pan American Games bronze medallist.
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India at Olympics: Mary Kom takes one last shot at gold in Tokyo
This win put Kom, a mother of four, into the pre-quarterfinals where she will take on Colombia’s Ingrit Valencia, who won a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Coming to the bout, Kom used some brilliant tactics to overcome a spirited Garcia, 15 years junior to her. While she held back in the opening round to get a good measure of Garcia, she turned aggressive in the final three minutes after the Dominican clinched the second round with some powerful punching.
Kom’s trusted right hook helped her throughout the bout and she used a sharp mind to outsmart the opponent who failed to strike clearly on many occasions.
The Boxing Federation of India congratulated Kom over her maiden win in the competition.
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2012 London #Olympics ? medalist @MangteC starts off her @tokyo2020 campaign on a fiery note as she defeats ??’s M Hernandez 4-1 in 51 kg ?#RingKeBaazigar#boxing#Tokyo2020#Cheer4India#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/dOiBHiOgYu
— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) July 25, 2021
