Asian boxing: Four Indians make it to last-four

Tashkent, May 3
Four Indian boxers, top seed Vikas Krishan (75kg), fourth seed Shiva Thapa (60kg), Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Amit Phangal (49kg), have advanced to the semifinals at the Asian Championships. By virtue of making it to the semifinals, they have assured themselves of a medal and a berth at the World Championships.
While it will be a third medal at the Asian Championships for Thapa, Krishan will return home with his second from the event. Thapa had won gold in the 2013 edition of the tournament and bronze in 2015; Krishan was the lone silver medallist for India in 2015.
Sangwan started the day for India on a bright note when he stunned third-seeded Chinese Fengkai Yu 4-1. The Indian used his reach well, and kept the Chinese away from him most of the time. He will now face second seed Jakhon Qurbonov of Tajikistan on Friday.
In the afternoon session, Phangal got 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 more attacking of the two, he lacked accuracy. In the semis, Phangal will face Uzbekistan’s Olympics gold medallist Hasanboy Dusmatov.
Thapa, meanwhile, sailed past Chinese Taipei’s Chu-en Lai in his quarterfinal bout. Thapa was clearly superior in his footwork and accuracy. The Indian, who is also a World Championships bronze medallist, left Lai befuddled with his counter attacks. The Assam lad will face top seed Chinzorig Baatarsukh in his semifinal clash on Friday.
Krishan was up against Indonesia’s Brama Hendra Betaubun. Though Betaubun matched the Indian in aggression, Krishan was better in defence and used his right hook to good effect. He will now face fourth seed Dongyun Lee of Korea in the semifinals.
However, Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) bowed out when he lost to China’s Jiawei Zhang, seeded second. Bidhuri 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. However, all is not lost for Bidhuri as he can still claim a place in the World Championships, scheduled to be held in Germany later this year, if he beats Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka in the box-off.