Sonia Lather punches her way into semis

Astana (Kazakhstan), May 24 

Sonia Lather (57kg) is the lone Indian boxer to make the semifinals and assure herself of a medal at the AIBA Women’s World Championships even as four other Indian boxers lost their quarterfinal bouts here today. Lather got the better of Poland’s Aneta Rygielska 3-0, sparing India the embarrassment of returning empty-handed from the event. Sarjubala Devi (48kg), Nikhat Zareen (54kg), Saweety (81kg) and Seema Poonia (+81kg) lost their quarterfinal bouts.

Lather mixed caution with aggression to wear down her rival. Displaying fine footwork, she landed some solid jabs in the first two rounds to unsettle her rival. Thereafter, it turned out to be a stroll in the park for the Indian boxer.

Lajja, Anjum falter ahead of final round 

New Delhi: Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Lajja Gauswami missed out on an opportunity to make it to the final round of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup being held in Munich’s Olympic Shooting Centre. Moudgil and Gauswami shot an identical score of 582 in their qualification round to finish 15th and 17th, respectively. It was a closely fought qualification round where four out of the eight women who made it to the finals had scores of 583, just one point more than the Indian pair.

Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia won the gold in the event, while Anzela Voronova of Estonia won the silver and Petra Zublasing of Italy bagged the bronze medal.

In the men’s 10m air pistol event, India’s Jitu Rai, while finishing 8th in the qualification relay, finished at the 22nd place with a score of 579. Gurpreet Singh shot 578 to finish 32nd. Omkar Singh, the other Indian in the fray, shot 574 to take the 52nd spot.  

Oleh Omelchuk of Ukraine won the gold in the event. The silver went to Ismail Keles of Turkey, and Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam bagged the bronze medal. — Agencies