Five women boxers enter Asian Youth Championship semis

Five Indian women boxers assured themselves of medals, two of them also inching closer to qualifying for this year's Youth Olympic Games in Argentina, after advancing to the semifinals of the Asian Championships here today.

Anamika (51kg) and Astha Pahwa (75kg) were assured of medals and remained in the hunt for booking a berth to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

For women, four weight categories -- 51kg, 57kg, 75kg and 60kg -- will feature at the Games and from the ongoing event, the top-four will make the cut.

While Anamika defeated Mongolia's Mungunsaran Balsan, Astha Pahwa got the better of China's Xiyue Wang. Both the boxers won in unanimous verdicts.

However, world championships gold-medallist Sakshi Choudhary (57kg) and Jony (60kg) bowed out of medal and Olympic berth contention. Sakshi was beaten by Thailand's Panpatchara Somnuek, while Jony lost 2-3 to Kazakhstan's Mariya Gladkova.

In other weight categories, Lalita (69kg) defeated Vietnam's Thi Giang Tran, while Divya Pawar (54kg) sailed past China's Xueqing Cao.

Also advancing to the semifinals were Nitu Ghanghas (48kg), who defeated China's Zhifei Hu.

The ongoing tournament also features male boxers in nine weight categories. The top four will qualify for the Youth Olympics.

Each country is entitled to a maximum of two women and three men qualifiers and if it ends up achieving more than that, the nation in question will have to pick among the qualifiers.

The Youth Olympics are scheduled from October 6 to 18 later this year.