Gaurav Bidhuri enters President's Cup semis in Philippines

World Championships bronze-medallist Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) assured himself of a medal at the President's Cup boxing tournament in Labuan Bajo, Philippines after claiming a comfortable win in the quarterfinals. Bidhuri, who claimed India's lone medal in the 2017 world event in Hamburg, stormed past Afghanistan's Waris Karimi to make the last-four stage on Wednesday evening.

The national championships' silver-medallist will next be up against local favourite Junmilardo Ogayre, who defeated Korea's Kim Haejin in his quarterfinal bout. The Delhi-boxer was recently left out of the Indian squad for the upcoming world championships to be held in Russia in September.

The iconic M C Mary Kom is also competing in this tournament and is already through to the 51kg category semifinals after getting an opening-round bye. Earlier, India Open gold-medallist Jamura Boro (54kg) advanced to the semifinals of the women's event, while Monika entered the finals.