M C Mary Kom (48kg) turned on the style as she advanced to the finals, while Vikas Krishan (75kg) and two other male boxers entered the semifinals on a reasonably good day for India at the 69th Strandja Memorial Tournament here today. 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.
However, another former world and Asian champion L Sarita Devi (60kg) bowed out of the competition with a bronze medal. Sarita lost to Finland’s Mira Potkonen, to whom she had lost in the final of last month’s India Open as well. Meena Kumari Devi (54kg) also ended with a bronze medal after losing to local favourite Stoyka Petrova despite a spirited performance.
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. India are assured of 10 medals at the event — five men and an equal number of women in various stages of medal rounds.
