Mary Kom Cruises Into Finals In Asian Boxing Championship

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 Japans 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.