Asian Games 2014: Incredible Mary Kom continues to shut her doubters up

Vietnam’s Le Thi Bang had the height advantage, the reach advantage and the age advantage in her Flyweight semi-final at the 2014 Asian Games. It was not enough to get her the win against Hmangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, arguably India’s greatest ever female athlete. Mary Kom is 31. She has three children. The Asian Game is her first competition in two years and her first since her second cesarean operation. She is boxing in a higher weight category than the one in which she has boxed for most of her 12-year-career, so her opponents are often taller and heavier. And she is in the final. [caption id=“attachment_1737281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Mary Kom. AP[/caption] For the women, a bout consists of four two-minute rounds. For the first two rounds, Mary was content to size up Le like the matriarch of a pack would a younger pretender. She danced just out of Le’s reach, advancing only occasionally to land a right hook or a straight right to make sure she won those rounds. The younger Le – she is 22 – kept throwing her right jab (both women are southpaws), the obvious strategy for a taller fighter, and kept coming up empty. A boxer of Mary’s capabilities was not going to be caught out by so simple a tactic. Having decided that Le did not have the weapons or ring craft to hurt her. Mary upped the tempo in the final two rounds. She moved in closer, unafraid now of that bobbing right hand, and began to hurl combination punches. These are the punches that do the most damage to an opponent and the ones that judges reward. Mary has been working relentlessly on them in training and now she swarmed. Le fought gamely but lacked the skill to counter Mary’s sudden aggression. The Vietnamese fighter landed one solid left hook in the third but mostly missed with wild flurries. When the final bell sounded, Mary raised one arm and smiled. She knew she was through to the final. An Asian Games gold, something that is missing from her resume, is now within punching distance. India had left Mary off their 2014 Commonwealth Games squad in July in favour of Pinky Jangra. The hurt caused by that decision still rankles the boxer from Manipur. She believes her achievements and experience should have tipped the scales in her favour. But it also gave her the motivation to shut her doubters up. “I am proving them wrong because I am fighting,” she said a week before the Games began. “I will prove myself again.” Whether she wins the final or not, she has been true to her word.