NICOLA ADAMS is guaranteed a medal at the Women’s World championships in Kazakhstan. To reach the semi-finals she had to come through a furious encounter with Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Ting Lin. The latter was vast for 51kgs and she towered over Nicola. With long arms and a far reach, Lin was aggressive too. She was boxing to qualify for the Olympic Games and fought desperately hard. Yu-Ting stormed forward from the start and caught Nicola flush with a hefty right. She put Adams under real pressure and the Briton had to assert her skillful boxing, putting her jab and fine footwork to good use.
It all came down to the last round. Nicola was finding the mark and planted a clear right cross on Lin just before the bell. That could have the punch that tipped it her way. The decision was close, a razor thin unanimous verdict in Adams’ favour.
“There’s a couple of them that are quite big like that,” Nicola said after overcoming Lin. “It was really tough. A tricky counter puncher, massive.
“It was the hardest fight of this competition but you’ve just got to deal with things as they come along… That comes with experience. I’ve got a lot of experience in the game and I can adapt to pretty much any opponent.”
The semi-finals take place on Thursday (May 26). Adams boxes Kazakhstan’s Zhaina Shekerbekova at 2pm (UK time). GB middleweight Savannah Marshall takes on Netherlands’ Nouchla Fontijn at about 3.45pm for a place in the final and Irish lightweight Katie Taylor boxes France’s Estelle Mossely at 3pm in their semi-final. Her team-mate, 64kgs Kellie Harrington became the first female Irish boxer other than Katie Taylor to medal at a World championships when she won her quarter-final on Tuesday. Harrington boxes Canada’s Sara Kali at 11am.
