Ulaanbaatar Cup: MC Mary Kom suffers shock loss in quarters; four more Indian pugilists in semis

New Delhi: Five-time world champion MC 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 semi-finals 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 Chol Mi Bang. The 34-year-old, a five-time world champion and an Olympic bronze-medallist, struggled to connect clean punches against her taller rival, and was even warned once for excessive bending. [caption id=“attachment_3739937” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of MC Mary Kom. PTI[/caption] 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 silver-medallist Ankush Dahiya (60kg), Strandja Memorial gold-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg), King’s Cup gold-medallist K Shyam Kumar (49kg) and Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg) won their respective quarter-final bouts in the men’s and women’s draws to make the medal rounds. While Ankush outpunched Mongolia’s Dulgunn Oyunchimeg, Priyanka got the better of Russia’s Aleksandra Ordina. Ankush will be up against Russian Radna Tsibikov in his last-four stage. Priyanka, on the other hand, will square off against Korea’s Hye Song Choe. Hussamuddin (56kg) outpunched China’s Ma Xin Ming, Shyam Kumar (49kg) got the better of Mongolia’s Enkhmandakh Kharkhuu in his last-eight stage contest. However, Duryodhan Singh (69kg) lost to Mongolian Byamba-Erdene Otgonbaatar in his quarter-final bout to bow out of the event. Also making an exit was Kalawanti (75kg) who lost to Russian Liubov Iusupova. After today’s results, India have one woman and four men in the semi-finals. On Thursday, Commonwealth Games silver-winner L Devendro Singh (52kg) assured himself of his first international medal by entering the last-four stage. Devendro, who jumped to the flyweight category late last year, defeated Russia’s Dimitrii Yusupov to advance in 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.