India Open: Boxers Shiva, Sarita storm into semis

Olympian Shiva Thapa and former world women's champion Sarita Devi assured themselves of at least a medal each by storming into the semifinals of the India Open International Boxing Tournament here at the Thyagraj Indoor stadium on Tuesday.

Young boxer Shiva fiercely crashed his tough opponent, Sherbek Rakhmatulloev, in the light-weight category, setting up a mouth-watering semi-final clash against his arch Indian rival Manish Kaushik.

Sarita, on the other hand, thrashed Thailand's Laoeam Peamwilai in the women's light-weight category to book her place in the last-four.

Recently-crowned Indian national women's featherweight champ Sonia Lather, on the other hand, suffered a shocking 2-3 defeat at the hands of Indonesia's Marwami Jembay and missed out on a medal opportunity.

Meanwhile, Philippines' Nesthy Petecio also punched her way into the semi-final by beating Thailand's Tassamalee Thongjan in the feather-weight category.

Two other bouts went down to the wire, with Cameroon's Essiane Clotilde sneaking past India's Pooja Rani in the middle-weight division while Thailand's Panish Suchada outgunning her Indian opponent Rumi Gogoi also in the same division.