Magnificent Mary lifts record 6th gold
New Delhi: India's Sonia Chahal added the silver lining to the home campaign after M C Mary Kom's record sixth gold at the 10th AIBA women's boxing World Championships at the K D Jadhav indoor hall here on Saturday.
Sonia went down 1:4 by split decision to Germany's Ornella Gabriele Wahner in the 57 kg featherweight category on Saturday. Sonia's bout looked a one-sided affair in favour of the German, who came in with a flurry of punches towards the end of the opening round to dominate the proceedings.
It was always going to be a tough outing for the debutant Indian, who failed to use her taller height as an advantage as the German began on an attacking note, with a few left-and-right combos before pinning Sonia to the corner of the ring more than once to end with a few left-handed jabs.Sonia's silver brought India's campaign at the World Championship to an end with the hosts ending with 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze.
Earlier on Saturday, Mary scripted history by clinching a record sixth World Championship Gold medal in the light flyweight 48 kg category after outclassing Ukraine's Hanna Okhota by an unanimous 5:0 verdict. The 35-year-old Mary, a mother of three and a pre-tournament favourite for the gold, rewrote the record books when she eclipsed her joint haul of five golds with Katie Taylor of Ireland.
The Manipuri pugilist, who went over her weight category to clinch a 51 kg bronze at the London Olympics, previously clinched the World Championship gold on five occasions -- 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 -- besides bagging a silver on her debut in 2001.
Welcomed by thunderous chants of "Mary Mary" at the jampacked K.D. Jadhav hall, the Indian took the ring with a statistical and psychological advantage over her Ukrainian opponent, whom she recently beat at the Silesian Women's Open semi-finals in Poland. Living up to the reputation, Mary started the opening round aggressively and landed a couple of right jabs quite early into the round before taking full control with a right-two punch combination to Hanna.