Mary Kom bows out, Devendro in semis at Mongolia boxing tourney
Source: The Sangai Express / PTI
New Delhi, June 23 2017:
Five-time world champion M C Mary Kom bowed out with a shock quarter-final loss but India managed a reasonably good day with three men and one woman advancing to the semifinals of the Ulaanbaatar Cup boxing tournament in Mongolia on Friday.
Mary Kom (51kg), who was returning to action after a one-year hiatus, went down by a unanimous decision to Korean Choi Mi Bang.
The 34-year-old, a fivetime world champion and an Olympic bronze-medallist, struggled to connect clean punches against her taller rival and was even warned once for excessive bending.
Mary Kom would be going back to the light flyweight 48kg category after this to focus on the Asian Championships in November and the Commonwealth Games next year.
However, Asian youth sil-ver-medallist Ankush Dahiya (60kg), Strandja Memorial gold-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg), King's Cup gold-medallist K Shyanl Kumar (49kg) and Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg) won their respective quarterfinal bouts in the men's and women's draws to make the medal rounds.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games silver-winner Laishram Devendro (52kg) assured himself of his first international medal of the year by advancing to the semifinals of the Ulaanbaatar Cup boxing tournament in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Thursday.
Devendro, who jumped to the flyweight category late last year, defeated Russia's Dimitrii Yusupov to make the last-four stage of the tournament.
The triumph is a major confidence-booster for the 23-year-old from Manipur, who missed out on the Asian Championships earlier this year after surprisingly going down in the trials.
He had also lost early in the Strandja Memorial in Bulgaria and the King's Cup in Thailand.
Among other Indians in the fray, it was curtains for King's Cup bronze-medallist Rohit Tokas (64kg), who lost to Chinzorig Baatarsukh of Mongolia.