GUWAHATI: In what came as a biggest upset of the day, the youth world and reigning national champion, Sarjubala Devi of Manipur went down to Mamta of Haryana in a enthralling semifinal contest on the fourth day of the 13th Senior National boxing championship on Wednesday.
In 48kg category, Haryana state champion and the bronze medallist at the 2011 senior nationals, Mamta entered the ring looking to avenge last year's defeat against the 19-year-old Manipuri boxing sensation, and she made her intentions clear at the beginning of the first round itself.
Taking full advantage of her height, Mamta overpowered Sarju with her long reaching arms and did not allow the multiple youth national champion to play her natural game.
Mamta led 5-4 at the end of the first two minutes of the play and then continued with similar tactics in the second round as well. Her strategy paid off and midway through the bout she had a three point advantage (5-3).
In the third round, Sarju upped the ante and was able to get the better of her opponent after Mamta was given a warning for a foul punch.
Things seem to be turning in favour of the Manipuri boxer, but drama unfolded in the fourth round when she got a caution herself, for intentionally putting her head down.
After an intense eight minutes of play in total, it was Mamta who triumphed by virtue of points (20-17) and advanced to the final round of the championship.
For the 23-year-old Haryana boxer, this win meant a lot after having lost to Sarjubala in the semi-finals last year.
"It was difficult bout to win and it could have gone either way. We have practiced together at the national camps and I know her game, plus I had also done my home work pretty well. I did not allow her that many attacking opportunities in the beginning and moved around the ring a lot and it worked like a charm," said Mamta.
"In the end she was under pressure and became over aggressive that played in my favour as well. Overall, I am very happy with my performance," she added.
Mamta will take on Rebecca Lalinmawii of Mizoram, who got the better of local girl Anita Kahar of Assam, in the next round with the aim of bagging her first senior national gold medal.
Meanwhile, in the fly weight division (51kg), silver medal winner at the 2012 Asian Championships, Pinky Jangra displayed great determination and skill to get past some solid attacking from Basanti Chanu of All India Police.
She led from the start to finish to win 29-16. In the championship round she will face Toniabala Chanu of Arunachal Pradesh, who beat Roshni Subba of Sikkim.
The field got tougher with the likes of 2012 World Championship bronze medallist Kavita Chahal (+81kg), Guangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist Kavita Goyat (75kg) of Haryana along with silver medallist at the 2012 Asian Championships Pooja Rani (75kg) of RSPB, Sonia Lather (54kg) of Haryana, Monica Saun (60kg) of Uttarakhand and Pinky Jangra (51kg) also of the Railways all cementing their place in the championship round.
World number 5, Chahal defeated Laxmi Padiya on points (27-7). The fight for the yellow metal in the middle weight division will witness 2011 Arafura Games silver medallist Pooja Rani taking on 2012 Asian Games bronze medallist Kavita Goyat of Haryana.
In the round of four, Rani was at her menacing best as she beat Poonam Mahant from Madhya Pradesh in a completely lop-sided contest. Goyat too had an easy route to the finals with a 26-7 victory over Poonam from All India Police.
In the bantam weight division former national champion and last year's silver medallist Lather had to dig deep against some power punching from Assamese boxer Anjali Machahary, but in the end the veteran boxer beat the local girl 19-14 on points.
In the feather weight division, it was a bad day seasoned boxer Mandakini Chann representing AIP. The 27 year old came up short against 2010 Asian Championship bronze medallist Pavitra of the Railways team.
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