Pinki, Sarita reach CWG boxing semis

Female Indian boxers Pinka Jangra and L. Sarita Devi reached the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games in their respective categories at the SECC Hall here Wednesday.

However, Amritpreet Singh bit the dust as he lost the men's 91 kg quarter-final bout to local pugilist Stephen Lavelle. The judges found the Scot to be better than the Indian in all three rounds to win with the scoreline reading 29:28, 30:27 and 30:27.

Pinki started the proceedings with a dominating 4:0 win over Papua New Guinea's Jacquiline Wangi in the women's 48-51 kg quarterfinal. She will now face Northern Ireland's Michaela Walsh in the semis Friday.

Sarita followed it up with a win in the women's 57-60 kg quarterfinal over Welsh Charlene Jones. Though the Welsh girl won the first round on points, Sarita came back well to win the next three rounds of two minutes each to clinch the contest 3:1.

The Indian will play her last four bout Friday against Mozambique's Maria Machongua.

The losing semifinalists in the discipline are assured of a bronze medal as the winners proceed to the gold medal final match.

Devendro Laishram (49 kg), Manjeet Jangra (69 kg) and Vijender Singh (75 kg) will play their men's quarterfinals later in the day.