Internet Desk: Four Indian boxers qualified for the semi-finals of the Asian Championships. Shiva Thapa of 60kg, Sumit Sangwan of 91kg, Vikas Krishnan 75kg and Amit Phangal of 49kg are assured medals in their respective categories. They have also booked berth for World Championships too.
Shiva who is the fourth seeded boxer along with the other two booked a slot in the Championships.
Sangwan defeated worlds ranked no three Fengkai Yu of China, whom he defeated 4-1 today.
Sumit who is a former Olympic Qualifier gold medallist make a mark in the game from the very beginning when he threw his opponent off-balance every time.
Sumit will now face second seed Jakhon Qurbonov of Tajikistan in the semifinals on Friday after a rest day tomorrow. Qurbonov outpunched Pakistan’s Mehmood Sanaullah in his quarterfinal bout.
In the afternoon session Amit Phangal (49kg) gave India a good start by getting the better of fourth seed Cornelis Kwangu Langu of Indonesia 4-1. Langu, a South East Asian Games gold-medallist, found it tough to keep pace with the Indian.
Although Langu was clearly the more attacking of the two boxers but was mostly found wanting on accuracy.
Amit is up for a tough one in the semifinals, where he will square off against Uzbekistan’s Olympic gold-medallist Hasanboy Dusmatov.
Shiva, meanwhile, sailed past Chinese Taipei’s Chu-En Lai in his quarterfinal bout.
Shiva was clearly the superior of the two boxers in footwork and accuracy. The Indian, who is also a World Championships bronze-medallist, left Lai befuddled with his counter-attacking approach.
The Assam lad will face top seed Chinzorig Baatarsukh in his semifinal clash on Friday.
Vikas was up against Indonesia’s Brama Hendra Betaubun. Though Betaubun was quite a match for Vikas in aggression, the Indian dominated by not just defending well but also by using his right hook to good effect.
Vikas will now face fourth seed Dongyun Lee of Korea in the semifinals.
However, it was heartbreak for Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg), who opened the proceedings for India in the morning session as he lost to second-seeded Chinese Jiawei Zhang.
Gaurav went down 2-3 in a bout marred by excessive clinching and holding. Both the boxers ended up being warned by the referee for their tactics.
In the end, Zhang came out triumphant with his clean straight punches even though Bidhuri had also struck some lusty body blows.
However, all is not lost for Bidhuri as he can still claim a place in the August-September World Championships, to be held in Germany, if he beats Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka in the box-off.
Tanaka lost his quarterfinal bout to third seed Kairat Yeraliyev of Kazakhstan.
With inputs from PTI.