Strandja Memorial 2018: Mary Kom advances to finals, Meenakumari Devi settles for bronze

MC Mary Kom breezed past her Chinese opponent Ye Jiali to advance to the finals whereas compatriot Meenakumari Devi Maisnam lost to local lass Stoyka Petrova and earned a bronze, in their campaign of Strandja Memorial Tournament here on Friday night.

The Olympic bronze medalist from India, didn’t break a sweat as she defeated the Chinese and extended her run of acquiring gold medals after Mary won the Asian Games and India Open in comprehensive fashion.

Under pressure while facing a local pugilist, Meenakumari Devi lost to Stoyka on split decision.

In the men’s department, India had a great day as well with Vikas Krishan (75 kg), Satish Kumar (+91 kg) and Gaurav Solanki assured themselves of a bronze.

The 21-year-old Gaurav Solanki had to toil it out to eke out a win against Kyrgyzstans Azat Usenaliev to book his berth in the last four stage. However, Manish Panwar couldn’t continue his good run of form as he lost against Ilyas Mutaev of Russia who put a staunch fight.

Satish Kumar beat Iman Ramezahnpourdelavar to assure himself of a bronze.

With these wins, India have assured themselves of 11 medals in total with five men and six women in medal rounds of the championship.