India’s medal contender M C Mary Kom stormed into the quarterfinals of the women’s flyweight category (51 kg) in the boxing event of the Olympic Games with a comfortable 19-14 victory over Poland’s Karolina Michalczuk at the ExCel arena, here today.

Known as ‘Magnificent Mary’, the five-time World Champion dominated proceedings from the start and gave a superb exhibition of aggressive boxing to outpunch the Polish in her opening bout.

Thanks to the few lethal blows the Manipuri unleashed on her Polish opponent, Mary set up a last-eight date with Tunisian pugilist Maroua Rahali.

“It was a good way to start, the whole country was praying for this win. There were lot of people of all religion who were praying for me and I am happy that I have crossed the first hurdle,” Mary said after the win.

With a seizable Indian crowd cheering for her, the 29-year-old Mary went into attacking mode straightaway as she unleashed a flurry of punches, but her Polish rival defended well, not allowing the Indian to score many points in the first round which ended 3-3.

In her eagerness to take a decent lead in the very first round, Mary tripped and fell down but she did not allow that to affect her concentration.

Mary began to consolidate her position from the second round onwards which she won 5-4, but again lost her balance and fell to the ground.

However, the turning point was the third round, in which she rained blows on her opponent — a world No 5.

A couple of good left-right hook combination with a fantastic left upper cut fetched her seven points to the Polish girl’s four.

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