TASHKENT: Top seed Vikas Krishan (75kg) and fourth seed Shiva Thapa (60kg) were among the four Indian boxers who qualified for the World Championships and assured themselves of medals by advancing to the Asian Championships semifinals on Wednesday. Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Amit Phangal (49kg) were the other two Indian boxers to book medals as well as World Championship slots in the prestigious continental event.While it was a third successive medal assured at the event for Shiva, Vikas secured a second successive for himself. Qurbonov outpunched Pakistan's Mehmood Sanaullah in his quarterfinal bout.In the afternoon session Amit Phangal (49kg) gave India a good start by getting the better of fourth seed Cornelis Kwangu Langu of Indonesia 4-1. The Indian, who is also a World Championships bronze-medallist, left Lai befuddled with his counter-attacking approach.The Assam lad will face top seed Chinzorig Baatarsukh in his semifinal clash on Friday.Vikas was up against Indonesia's Brama Hendra Betaubun. Both the boxers ended up being warned by the referee for their tactics.In the end, Zhang came out triumphant with his clean straight punches even though Bidhuri had also struck some lusty body blows.However, all is not lost for Bidhuri as he can still claim a place in the August-September World Championships, to be held in Germany, if he beats Japan's Ryomei Tanaka in the box-off.Tanaka lost his quarterfinal bout to third seed Kairat Yeraliyev of Kazakhstan.

Source: Times of India May 03, 2017 11:09 UTC