New Delhi: Continued with her winning spree Sonia Chahal overpowered Jo Son Hwa of North Korea to become second Indian contender for Gold but Simranjit Kaur was not so lucky as she lost out to Chinese Dan Dou on a split decision to be content with a bronze in the Women’s World Boxing Championships, at KD Jadhav Hall, IG Indoor stadium in New Delhi on Friday.
Sonia Chahal playing in her first World championship survived few anxious punches before stunning Jakarta Asian Games silver medalist in 57 kg semi-final with a unanimous 5-0 verdict.
The 21-year old pugilist from Haryana along with veteran Mary Kom (48 Kg) will battle it for Gold in their respective categories on Saturday.
Sonia (57 kg) faces Wahner Ornella Gabriele of Germany while Mary Mom, seeking her historic sixth gold will take on Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota in their summit bouts.
Tall and lanky Simranjit fought hard and at one time looked like surprising Dan Dou, a silver medallist in the Asian Championships last year, but that was not to be and she bowed on a split 1-4 decision in the 64kg semifinals, to clinch the second bronze for India. Debutant Lovlina Borgohain had won a bronze in 69kg after losing her semifinal bout on Thursday.
Best show after 2008
With two bronze medals already won and two gold medal round bouts yet to come, India has produced its best ever show since the 2008 edition when the country won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze. That time also, two Indians were in the final and two were beaten in the semifinals.
India can beat this 2008 performance if both Mary Kom and Sonia win a gold each on Saturday.
India’s best performance ever was the eight medals, including four gold, it won in 2006. After that, India won four medals in 2008, two in 2010, one in 2012, two in 2014 and one in 2016.
Sonia was guarded to start with but opened up with a flurry of blows which rattled her fancied rivals. However the Korean seized the initiative in the second but in the decider, the Haryana girl fought aggressively dominated the semifinal bout in the end.
“My coaches said my opponent won the first round and it was an even affair in the second round and so I have to be aggressive in the third if I have to win the bout. So I changed my game and played aggressively in the third round with 1-2,” Sonia said later.
“I am really happy I came up with a good strategy. She was charging at me, particularly in the second round, and I kept a good distance. My plan was to go for broke in the last and I managed to that,” said an elated debutant, who had beaten Hwa for the second time in her career.
Asked about the final she said, “My opponent in the final is a hard-hitting boxer and I have to plan accordingly. I want to win the gold in front of my home crowd.”
Ornella Gabriele Wahner accounted for the Netherland’s Jemyma Betrian 5:0.
Simranjit did everything which was expected of her. But her rival was very fast and she landed some incisive punches on the Indian in the first two rounds.
The Punjab girl tried to regroup herself in the third as she was all over the Chinese and it gave the impression that she was gaining ground but only to fall short with a 1:4 (27-30, 30-27, 27-30, 27-30, 28-29) loss and end her campaign.
“This is my first World Championships and I won a bronze. I have to be satisfied with this.” She said after her defeat. “Yes, it is all right. The result could have gone either way. I have no issues. The first round was not mine and the second round was also very tough. So, the coaches told me to go all out in the third round. I did that but it was not enough,” she said about the bout.
