Four Indian boxers assured of bronze at Philippines event

Four Indian boxers have made it to the semifinals of the ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championship in Subic bay, Philippines and assured themselves of as many bronze medals.

Narender Berwal (+91kg) and Lalitha Prasad (49kg) were the latest ones to enter the last four with Amritpreet Singh (91kg) and Abhishek Beniwal (81kg) securing a semi-final berth earlier.

Silver medallist at the 2012 Youth World Championships, Berwal made a stunning recovery against Kazakh boxer Dastan Kurmanbetov after being down 1-4 in the opening round.

The reigning youth national champion displayed exceptional 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 semis tomorrow, Berwal will take on Uzbekistan's Ulugbek Mubinov, who won the country's men's Elite Boxing Championships in December last year.

The 17-year-old Prasad, who bagged the light fly weight 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 of play (2-2), he made a strong charge in the second round with his effective counter punches. He scored five points as opposed to his rival's two points.

Prasad finally outplayed Engkang 11-7 to advance to the last four.

He will lock horns with Japan's light flyweight boxer, AIBA Youth World Championships quarterfinalist, Kosei Tanaka for a place in finals tomorrow.