Astana : 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 here on Friday.
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.
However, the Italian, who was a bronze-medallist in the previous edition, kept her composure and counter-attacked well in the next three rounds.
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.
Sonia’s medal aside, it was a disappointing performance by India and a gold medal evaded the team for the third successive edition.
