24 February,2018 08:24 AM IST | Sofia (Bulgaria) | PTI
Mary Kom
MC Mary Kom (48kg) turned on the style as she advanced to the finals, while Vikas Krishan and two other male boxers entered the semifinals on a reasonably good day for India at the 69th Strandja Memorial Tournament here yesterday. Five-time world champion and Olympic bronze-medallist Mary Kom, targetting her third successive international gold medal, quite literally toyed with China's Ye Jiali to make the summit clash.
In the men's draw, former Asian Games gold-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg), Asian Games bronze medallist Satish Kumar (+91kg) and the unheralded Gaurav Solanki (52kg) advanced to the semi-finals to assure themselves of medals. While Gaurav pummelled Kyrgyzstan¿s Azat Usenaliev, Vikas edged past Kazakhstan¿s Tursynbay Kulakhmet in a split verdict to make the last-four stage.
It was a significant victory for Vikas, who is returning to action after recovering from a hand injury, which forced him out of the national championships as well as the India Open last month. In the evening session, Satish hardly broke a sweat against Iran's Iman Ramezanpoudelavar in his quarterfinal victory. Their victories took the total number of male boxers in the semi-finals to five.
Earlier, India Open gold-medallist Amit Panghal (49kg) also made the semi-final stage along with last edition¿s silver-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg). Bowing out today in the quarterfinal stage was Manish Panwar (81kg), losing to Russia's Ilyas Mutaev in a unanimous verdict.
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