The five-time world champion Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom became India’s first woman boxer to win a Gold medal at the Asian Games when she beat Kazakhstan’s Zhaina Shekerbekova in the flyweight (48-51kg) final at the Seonhak Gymnasium here on Wednesday.
The london Olympics bronze medalist was playing in her first big tournament as she lost to Pinki Jangra in the national trials for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
“I am very happy because this was my first competition after the Olympics (2012),” Mary said. “I am a mother of three children but still I am doing well because I have sacrificed a lot and trained very hard to be here. It is the support of the people from my country that has helped me become a champion once again. So I thank all the people who have supported me,” she added.
The bout on Wednesday could go either way. Both the boxers fought well in all the four rounds and it was difficult to judge the winner from outside. But the clear punches that Mary Kom hit tilted the result in her favour as she won the summit clash 2-0 on points.
The 24-year-old Shekerbekova was swift on her feet and quick with her hands as Mary was finding it difficult to come close and collect points. The task was difficult for the Manipuri boxer as she had to maintain a safe distance and yet find a way to penetrate inside her defense zone and come out as quickly as possible.
But it was the day Mary had been working for since losing to Jangra. “When she lost to Pinki we analysed her (Mary) game and realised that her lower body has gone weaker after giving birth to three children. So we charted out a plan to strengthen her legs. We made her run up the hill and climb stairs to make her legs strong,” Mary’s personal coach Angom lenin Meitei said.
“We knew that the Kazakh girl was pretty quick but she was as experienced as Mary is. Our strategy today was to stay away from her (Shekerbekova) hitting range and when there is an opportunity, we would hit multiple punches; not one punch and out,” he added.
For the first two rounds, Mary couldn’t find any space and apart from an occasional punch here and there, the bout remained largely balanced. It was the third round where the 31-year-old Mary gained stepped ahead of the Kazakh girl.
Christened ‘Magnificent Mary’ by the International Boxing Association for her unprecedented feats, began to dictated the pace of the proceedings. Shekerbekova could not come to grips with the tactical shift in Mary Kom’s game and could only respond by holding her opponent frequently, for which the referee cautioned her.
In the meantime, Mary landed some good punches in clusters to put her opponent on back foot. And having gained psychological as well as numerical advantage over Shekerbekova in the third round, Mary retained the momentum in the fourth as well to win the bout on points.