With a victory against her Chinese opponent in the quarterfinals, Mary Kom enters the semi-final of ongoing Women’s World Championship. 

Mary Kom has also assured herself of a seventh medal at the showpiece event becoming the most successful boxer in the event’s history.

The 35-year-old Mary Kom defeated China’s Wu Yu 5-0 in the light flyweight (48kg) category quarter-finals to enter the last-four stage and be assured of at least a bronze.

Mary Kom entered the event with a remarkable tally of five gold medals and a silver to her credit. She last won a world championship medal in 2010 – a 48 kg category gold. 

Before this edition of the marquee event, she was tied with Irish legend Katie Taylor.  Both the legends have won 6 medals each in the event’s history. 

But with Tuesday’s win, the Manipuri became the most successful boxer in the tournament. This win assured her at least a bronze. Taylor cannot chase the record as she now competes in professional boxing.

The tournament was quite a success for Indians as along with Mary Kom, four other Indian boxers in Lovlina Borgohan, Sonia and Simranjit Kaur entered the semi-finals. This guaranteed India at least four medals. 

After a day’s rest tomorrow, some of them will get engaged in the semi-finals on Thursday while the rest on Friday.

Another flag in the hat of Bajrang Punia, who was neglected for Khel Ratna Award by the Government. He wins the Silver medal in the 65 kg category in the World Wrestling Championship at Budapest. He lost to Japanese teenager, Takuto Otoguro in the finals. 

Bajrang Punia was on the verge of becoming the second wrestler from India, after Sushil Kumar, to win a gold medal in the World Wrestling Championship ever. He entered the final by the winning a very close bout against Alejandro Valdes Tobier of Cuba 4-3. In the closely contested match in the final, he lost by 16-9. Thus, shattering the dream of the wrestler. 

Bajrang Punia has been to Budapest before. Back when he was still 19 and new to the international arena, the wrestler was at his first senior world championship in 2013 in the city. Punia won the Bronze Medal in that Championship. 

In the last five years since that bronze, Bajrang also has a Under-23 world championship silver medal in 65 kg and is a two-time medallist at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. In 2017, he became the Asian champion as well.

Despite all these achievements, he was ignored by the Government for Khel Ratna Award. He, along with Viignesh Phogat, scored 80 points, the highest among all the nominees. But still, they were not awarded with the highest sports award in India. In spite of all such distractions, he was determined to win the medal and he won.