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Subic Bay (Philippines) - Youth World Championships’ silver medallist Narender Berwal (+91kg) and bronze medal winner in 2012 Lalitha Prasad (49kg) continued their winning streak at the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championship here on Thursday as they marched into the semifinals.
The Indian boxers comprehensively beat their opponents to cement a place in the last four. With Berwal and Prasad advancing to the medal rounds, India now has four boxers in the penultimate round of the championship.
Earlier in the tournament, Amritpreet Singh (91kg) beat Yousef Al-nubani of Jordan to make his place in the semis. Aglorav Cup bronze medal winner Abhishek Beniwal (81kg) also made a place in the final four of the light heavyweight category by virtue of a bye.
Berwal was up against Kazakh boxer Dastan Kurmanbetov and made a stunning recovery after being 1-4 down in the opening round to emerge victorious. The reigning youth national champion displayed class as he came down heavily on his opponent with some hard hitting punches in the second frame, which forced the referee to stop the contest.
In the semifinal on Friday, he takes on Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Mubinov.
File Photo – PL Prasad (49kg) (Image courtesy – IBF Media)
The 17-year-old Prasad, who bagged the light flyweight title at the 2012 Tammer International tournament in Finland, gave a splendid account of his boxing skills against Jun Engkang of Indonesia.
After a cautious opening three minutes (2-2), he made a strong charge in the second round with his counter-punches. He scored five points as opposed to the Indonesian boxers’ two. Prasad finally outclassed Engkang 11-7 to advance. He will next fight Japan’s Kosei Tanaka for a place in final on Friday.
There was disappointment too for India in other weight divisions.
AIBA Youth World Championships bronze medallist Sandeep Sharma (75kg) lost to Uzbekistan’s defending AIBA Youth World Champion Akmalbek Kosimov 8-13. Newcomer Dinesh (64kg) also went down to Mongolia’s Batzorig Otgonjargal with an identical score.
Reigning junior national champion Nagesh Kharare (60kg) went down to local boy James Palicte 7-10 while Mangeet Panghal (69kg) lost to Mongolia’s Davaanvan Davaasuren 13-18.
