Rich haul of medals for India in Asian Women's Boxing

New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) India's women boxers M.C. Mary Kom and L. Sarita Devi bagged gold as the team Sunday finished with a rich haul of two gold, four silver and two bronze medals at the sixth Asian Women's Championship at Ulaanbatar in Mongolia.

For its wonderful overall performance, India also received the runner-up trophy while China finished on top.

Mary Kom in the Olympic weight category of 51kgs defeated twice World Champion and Asian Games 2010 gold medallist Ren Cancan of China 14-8.

At the end of round one, the Indian was leading 2-1 which she increased to 7-3 by the end of the second and consolidated to 11-6 by the end of round three. Mary Kom avenged her Asian Games 2010 loss to Cancan by finishing round four at 14-8.

In the 60kgs which is another Olympic Games weight category, 2006 World Champion Sarita Devi defeated last Asian Championship gold medallist Chorieva Mavzuna of Tajkistan 16-9.

Sarita had beaten current Asian Games gold medallist and former World Champion Cheng Dong of China in the semi-finals Saturday 26-15.

Pinki Jangra fighting in the 48kgs category narrowly lost the gold to Bolortuul Tumurhuyag of Mongolia 22-24. Local crowd support gave the Mongolian the advantage as she edged ahead in the final tally.

In the 54kgs, Sonia Lather fought bravely but lost 8-12 to Ke Jia Luu of China and had to settle for the silver medal.

Monica Saun (69kgs) fought courageously and was close on the heels of Chinese boxer Dong Mei Wang but experience helped the Chinese boxer to win the gold 10-13.

In the third Olympic weight category of 75kgs, Pooja Rani lost to the World Champion and Asian Games gold medallist Jinzi Li of China 8-15.

In the first two rounds Pooja gave stiff competition to the Chinese narrowly trailing 2-4 and 5-8 but then Jinzi Li pulled ahead in the next two rounds to win the gold. Pooja had defeated Mongolia's strong medal hope and Asian Games 2010 silver medalist Undram Erdenesyol by a huge margin of 28-6 in the quarterfinals.