New Delhi: India were assured of four medals at the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia after four boxers from the country, including world and Asian silver medal-winner Sonia Lather (57kg), advanced to the semifinals, Thursday. The three others who guaranteed themselves of at least a bronze medal each were Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Himanshu Sharma (49kg) and Ashish (64kg).
However, Sarjubala Devi (51kg) bowed out in the quarterfinals after losing 1-4 to Mongolian Myagmardulam Nandinsetseg.
Sonia produced an assured performance to defeat local favourite Myagmar Gundegmaa to make the last-four stage. It was a punching contest between Sonia and Gundegmaa, but the Indian was better by a few notches in her clean and impactful hits.
Lovlina, a gold medallist at the inaugural India Open earlier this year, was equally dominating in her 5-0 win over Thailand’s Suchada Panich.
In the evening session which featured men’s quarterfinal bouts, Himanshu defeated Chinese Taipei’s Po Wei Tu in a unanimous verdict. Also advancing with a 5-0 win was Ashish, who put it past Korea’s Kim Song Yun in a clinical performance.
Three in semis
Meanwhile at Halle, Germany, Amit Panghal (49kg), Gaurav Solanki (52kg) and Dheeraj Rangi (64kg) assured themselves of a medal by entering the semifinals of the Chemistry Cup tourney. However, Vikas Krishan (75kg) bowed out with a loss to Olympic champion Arlen Lopez of Cuba.
In bouts conducted Wednesday night, Amit defeated Germany’s Christopher Goman 5-0, while Gaurav recorded a comprehensive win over Russia’s Vadim Kudriakov by an identical margin.
The Indian boxers to lose were Manish Kaushik (60kg), Naman Tanwar (91kg) and Ankush Dahiya (60kg). Manish was defeated 1-4 by Cuba’s Lazaro Jorge Alvarez Estrada, while Naman went down to the Netherland’s Roy Korving in another split verdict.