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Internet Desk: Five-time World Boxing champion M C Mary Kom will be back in the ring in an invitational tournament in Mongolia from 20th to 26th June.
The 34-year old Olympic bronze-medallist has not competed since last year’s World Championships, where she lost in the second round and missed qualification for the Rio Olympics.
The Manipuri boxer will compete in the 51kg category at the tournament.
“I have returned to 48kg but in this tournament I will fight in the 51kg category because I need some practice after year a away from competition. However, I wil be preparing myself in the 48kg cetagory for the Asian Championships in November,” Mary Kom said.
Soon after the Commonwealth Games organisers decided to introduce the 51kg category in the 2018 Gold Coast edition, the celebrated boxer decided to return to the light flyweight last year
Mary Kom’s previous world title, in the 2010 Barbados edition, had come in the 48kg category, while four others were in pinweight (46kg) prior to that.
Besides claiming gold in the 2014 Asian Games where women’s boxing made a debut, she had also won the bronze medal in the 2012 Olympic Games after the 51kg category was included in the Games.
“I have been training hard for the last six months and I decided to trial for this tournament because I wanted to test myself. Since 48kg was not a part of the schedule in Mongolia, I decided to compete in 51kg,” she said.
“But it is 48kg which will be my focus once I am back from Mongolia,” she added.
Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg) and Kalawanti (75kg) are the other members of the three-strong women’s team.
A mixed Indian team will also be travelling for an invitational tournament in Kazakhstan in July. The team for Kazakhstan comprises four men and three women.
The men’s team features national champion Deepak Singh (52kg), Devanshu (81kg) Gaurav Chauhan (91kg) and Parveen Kumar (+91kg).
The women’s team includes Nation’s Cup gold-medallist Neeraj (51kg), and new entrants Siwi Boora (60kg) and Lovelina (75kg).
Siwi is the younger sister of former World Championships silver-medallist Saweety Boora.