Indian boxer Sonia Lather (57kg) settled for a silver medal at the AIBA Women’s World Championships after going down to top seed Alessia Mesiano of Italy in a hard-fought summit clash. The lone Indian boxer to make the medal rounds, Sonia lost 1-2 but her silver ensured that India did not return empty-handed after what was a throughly disappointing campaign overall. The 24-year-old from Haryana was off the blocks confidently and managed to rattle Mesiano in the opening round with her precisely-placed combination punches.

Sonia, a former Asian Championships silver-medallist, found it tough to manoeuvre after Mesiano started engaging her from close range, leaving very little room for the Indian to launch her jabs. Sonia could not counter Mesiano’s tactics and was caught by surprise when she was struck by some telling straight punches from Mesiano, who stepped up the tempo in the third and fourth rounds.

Mary Kom (51kg), who was christened ‘The Magnificent Mary’ by the world body for her feats at the tournament, could only go till as far as the second round this time.  In the 2014 edition in South Korea, India had won two silver medals through Sarjubala Devi (48kg) and Saweety (81kg), both of whom lost in the quarterfinals this time.