Three Indians in Asian boxing semis

Indian boxers Shiva Thapa (60kg), Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Amit Phangal (49kg) entered the semi-finals of their weight categories at the Asian Boxing Championships here on Wednesday.

The trio not only ensured podium finish for themselves, but also qualified for the World Championships to be held in Hamburg, Germany, from August 25 to September 3.

Sumit was the first Indian boxer to advace to the last-four stage when he thrashed third seed Fengkai Yu of China 4-1 in the Light Heavyweight (81kg) quarter-finals.

Sumit will now face second seed Jakhon Qurbonov of Tajikistan in the semi-finals on Friday. Qurbonov had defeated Mehmood Sanaullah of Pakistan in the quarter-finals.

Amit also faced a relatively easy day, defeating fourth seed Cornelis Kwangu Langu of Indonesia 5-0 in the last-eight stage of the Light Flyweight (49kg) category.

He is expected to face a tough task in the semi-finals against reigning Olympic and Asian champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan.

Later in the day, Shiva defeated Chu-En Lai of Taiwan 5-0 in the Lightweight (60kg) quarter-finals.

Shiva will be up against top seed Chinzorig Baatarsukh of Mongolia in the semi-finals on Friday.

Baatarsukh had beaten Sarohatua Lumbantobing of Indonesia by a similar 5-0 margin in the quarters.

The day had, however, started on sore note for the Indian contingent as Gaurav Bidhuri despite a spirited fight was edged out 2-3 by second-seed Jiawei Zhang of China in the Bantamweight (56kg) division.

--IANS

ajb/vt