 "In pics: Mary Kom assured 8th world championship medal; 3 others in semis")
Mary Kom underscored her status as India's most successful boxer after securing a place in the semi-finals of the 51 kg category in the AIBA Women's World Championship in Russia. This assures the pugilist of an unprecedented eighth world championship medal.
There was more good news for the Indian contingent as three other boxers made their way into the medal rounds.
The debutant duo of sixth-seed Manju Rani (48kg) and Jamuna Boro (54kg) along with last edition's bronze-medallist and third-seed Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) made the medal rounds along side Mary Kom to ensure that India equalled their medal tally in the last edition of the world championship.
Both Rani and Boro earned hard-fought victories over strong opponents who hardly gave anything away defensively. But the two Indians were remarkably good in counter-attacks. However, Borgohain had little trouble going past Koszewska, whose rather awkward stance compounded her problems.
The six-time champion, Mary Kom (51kg) is now aiming for gold after her victory over Colombia's Valencia Victoria to enter semis. With this, Mary Kom bettered her own record as the most successful boxer in the history of the marquee tournament.
She will take on second-seed Turk Busenaz Cakiroglu, who is the reigning European Championship and European Games gold-medallist.
For Rani, her next opponent is going to be Thailand's Chuthamat Raksat, who upstaged fifth-seed Yuliyanova Asenova.
Boro will take on top-seed and former Asian Games bronze-medallist Huang Hsiao-Wen of Chinese Taipei.
Borgohain's opponent in the semfinals would be China's Yang Liu, who shocked top-seed Chen Nien-Chin in her quarterfinal clash.