Manish & Vikas storm into boxing semi-finals

Kathmandu: World Championships bronze medallist Manish Kaushik (64kg) and Commonwealth Games champion Vikas Krishan (69kg) made it to the semifinals on the first day of boxing event at the 13th South Asian Games here on Friday.

National Champion Ankit Khatana (75kg) was the third Indian to progress to the last four as he knocked out local boy Deepak Shrestha in the first round of his bout. Manish thoroughly dominated his quarter-final bout against Pakistan's Suleman Baloch to register a commanding 5-0 victory.

In the 69 kg quarter-final, Vikas marked his return to amateur circuit after a gap of 15 months with a superb performance against Bhutan's Dorji Tshering in a unanimous verdict. In the women's category, Sonia Lather (57 kg) had an easy outing against Bangladesh's Shamima Akter as she won via RSC in the 3rd round.

Young boxer S Kalaivani displayed her attacking prowess right from the word go, landing a series of attacking punches on Pakistan's Rabia Batool as the referee was forced to stop the contest in the first round itself.

Seven men boxers- Vinod (49kg), Sparsh (52kg), Sachin (57kg), Varinder (60kg), Sachin (81kg), Gaurav Chauhan (91kg) and Narender (+91kg) and four women boxers- Pinki Rani (51kg), Shiksha (54kg), Parveen (60kg) and Manju Bamboriya (64kg) are already in the semi-finals thus ensuring India of 16 medals.