India’s tally of assured medals at the Asian Youth Boxing Championships swelled to 12 after four more boxers advanced to the semi-finals Ulaanbaatar on Wednesday.
Satender Singh (91kg) defeated Korean Haneul Jung to make the last-four in the men’s draw. Joining him was Selay Soy (49kg), who put it past Taiwan’s Tzu-Chen. In the women’s draw, Poonam (54kg) and Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) made it to the medal rounds. While Poonam out-punched Philippines’ Caranagan Kaye, Arundhati defeated Taiwan’s Pin-Ju Chen.
However, it was curtains for the other Indians in fray in Thursday’s quarter-final bouts. In the men’s competition, Akshay Kumar (64kg) lost to Darkhan Duiisebay of Kazakhstan. Also bowing out were Vijaydeep (69kg) and Lakshya Chahar (81kg). Vijaydeep lost in a split verdict to Rustambek Uulu Nuradin of Kyrgyzstan. Chahar was also beaten in a split decision by Uzbekistan’s Shokhjakhon Abdullev.
Among the women, Rajni (48kg) lost to Japan’s Sinchara Hikaru in a split decision. On Tuesday, six Indian boxers had advanced to the semi-finals while two others got a direct entry into the last-four stage owing to the small size of their respective draws.
