Defending champion Amit Panghal enters semis of Asian Boxing Championships

DUBAI: Defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg) advanced to the semifinals and assured himself of a second successive medal at the Asian Boxing Championships after overcoming a stiff challenge from Mongolia's Kharkhuu Enkhmandakh in the last-eight stage here on Wednesday.

With this India's tally of assured medals swelled to 13.

The World Championship silver-winning Indian won 3-2 in a high-octane contest in which he overcame a sluggish start and used his combination punches to telling effect in the last two rounds.

After being somewhat bested in the opening three minutes, the Army man's trademark pace came to fore in the second round as he cleverly dodged his rival's aggressive attempts at connecting.

The Mongolian produced some fine body punches to unsettle Panghal but took quite a few hits on the counter-attack.

Late on Tuesday night, Sanjeet (91kg), Sakshi (54kg), Jaismine (57kg) and the Olympic-bound Simranjit Kaur (60kg) joined Shiva Thapa (64kg) in the last four stage following wins in their quarterfinal bouts.

They added to the seven medals, including that of six-time world champion M C Mary Kom (51kg), that were assured on the day of draws.

India Open gold-winner Sanjeet defeated Jasur Qurbonov of Tajikistan 5-0 to enter the semifinals in the men's draw along with Thapa.

His next opponent is last edition's silver-medallist Sanjar Tursunov of Uzbekistan who has been seeded third this year.

In the women's competition, Sakshi (54kg) got the better of Tajikistan's Ruhafzo Haqazarova 5-0 to set up a clash against top seed Dina Zholaman of Kazakhstan.

Jaismine edged past Oyuntsetseg Yesugen of Mongolia 4-1 and will now square off against Vladislava Kukhta of Kazakhstan.

Simranjit, who recently recovered from COVID-19, defeated Raykhona Kodirova of Uzbekistan 4-1.

Her next opponent is also a Kazakh in Rimma Volossenko.