M C Mary Kom (48kg) remained on course for a fifth Asian Championships gold after making the finals along with Sonia Lather (57kg) even as five other Indians settled for bronze medals at the Asian Boxing Championships in Vietnam on Tuesday.
Former world champion L Sarita Devi (64kg), Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Seema Punia (+81kg) and Shiksha (54kg) lost their respective semifinal bouts to finish with a bronze.
Mary defeated Japan's Tsubasa Komura by a unanimous 5-0 verdict to reach the final for the fifth time in her six appearances at the event. She will face North Korea's Kim Hyang Mi - who got the better of Mongolian Nandintsetseg Myagmardulam - in the final. If she wins, this will be her first Gold in the 48kg category. Mary returned to her preferred weight category after five years; she had shifted to the 51kg category after it was included as one of the weight categories at the Olympics.
Speaking after her match to PTI, she said, "It is a very special medal for me, like all others I have won, because every medal has a story behind it. I am delighted to be in the final. I was expecting a tough fight but I managed to figure Komura out early enough. I am already looking towards the final but I am not going to think too much and put pressure on myself. I will just go out and do my best, just like I have done so far in this tournament."
Mary's match saw both the boxers play with defensive tactics. The Japanese boxer seemed wary of going near the Indian, who had to lunge at Komura for her right hooks to connect. Mary's patience with Komura's tactics finally ran out in the second round as she increased the pace and ferocity of her own attacks to unsettle the Japanese. She employed the shell guard to stave off Komura's feeble right straights to ensure a lopsided contest.
Sonia, in contrast, had to steer past a very aggressive and persistent Yodgoroy Mirzaeva, whose lack of accurate punches cost her the bout. Mirzaeva's wild swings were easy to deflect for the Haryana boxer, a former silver-medallist at this event. However, it was a draining contest as Mirzaeva was on the attack throughout. In the end, Sonia was unanimously adjudged the victor and will be up against China's Yin Junhua in the final on Wednesday.
In other results, Asian Games bronze-medallist Sarita went down to China's Dou Dan in the semifinals. Shiksha too ended with a bronze medal after being out-punched by Chinese Taipei's former youth world champion Lin Yu-Ting in the semifinals. Priyanka lost to Korean Oh Yeonji, while Lovlina went down to Kazakhstan's Valentina Khalzova.
In India's last bout of the day, Seema, who got a direct entry into the semis courtesy the small size of the draw in her category, lost to Kazakhstan's Guzal Ismatova.