Devendro Singh assured of first international medal of 2017 after entering the semifinals of Ulaanbaatar Cup

New Delhi: Commonwealth Games silver-winner L Devendro Singh (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 Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_399093” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s L Devendro Singh Laishram. Reuters[/caption] 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 25- 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. On Thursday, five-time world champion M C Mary Kom (51kg), who got a bye into the quarterfinals, will open her campaign against the winner of the bout between Russia’s Anna Aedma and Korea’s Chol Mi Bang. In the men’s draw, Strandja Memorial silver-medallist Mohamed Hussamuddin (56kg) will face China’s Ma Xin Ming, while King’s Cup gold-medallist K Shyam Kumar (49kg) will meet Enkhmandakh Kharkhuu of Mongolia in his last-eight stage contest. Asian youth silver-medallist Ankush Dahiya (64kg) will also be squaring off against a Mongolian in Dulgunn. Duryodhan Singh (69kg) will take on a Mongolian, too, in Byamba-Erdene Otgonbaatar. Among the women, Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg) will fight it out against Russian Aleksandra Ordina. Kalawanti (75kg) will also be up against a Russian, Liubov Iusupova. Both the Indians won their respective quarterfinal bouts on Tuesday.