NEW DELHI, June 21: India were assured of four medals at the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia after four boxers from the country, including world and Asian silver-winner Sonia Lather (57kg), advanced to the semifinals today.
Joining her in the last-four stage were Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Himanshu Sharma (49kg) and Ashish (64kg).
All the four boxers are guaranteed of at least a bronze medal each. However, world silver-medallist Sarjubala Devi (51kg) bowed out in the quarterfinal stage after losing a close bout to Mongolian Myagmardulam Nandinsetseg 1-4.
Sonia produced an assured performance to defeat local favourite Myagmar Gundegmaa to make the last-four stage.
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.
It was a battle of straight punches between Sonia and Gundegmaa and the Indian was better by a few notches in her clean and impactful hits.
Lovlina�s rival put up a stronger resistance but lacked in accuracy.
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. � PTI
