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After the troika of Sandeep (46kg), Namit Bahadur (50kg) and Shiva Thapa (52kg) advanced with contrasting wins in the first session, Vikas Khatri joined them in the semifinals after winning his bantamweight bout in the evening session.
Vikas defeated Yang Zhang of China 8-6 to set up a tough clash with Yunior Ernesto Valdes Boleri of Cuba after a rest day on Thursday.
India had won two gold and a silver medal in the last edition, which was the country’s best-ever performance in the event. This time, the team is set to improve at least the medals tally.
However, there were a couple of disappointments as well with Kuldeep (57kg) and Gaurav Bidhuri (48kg) ending up on the losing side.
While Gaurav lost 4-8 to Bagdat Uaidayev of Kazakhstan, Kuldeep went down 11-8 to Aleko Chadashvili of Georgia.
Earlier, Sandeep was the first to take the ring against Aliaksei Hohleu of Belarus, and he secured the bout 11-3. He next faces Javlonbek Eshmatov of Uzbekistan.
“We told him to take it easy in the third round because too much aggression can lead to injury. He is a left-hander and that gives him an added advantage,” India coach MS Dhaka said.
Namit then ensured the second medal for India with a hard-fought 7-5 win over Turkey’s Bulut Haykir. Namit will be up against Talgat Berteulov of Kazakhstan in the final.
Shiva Thapa, on the other hand, had an easy bout against Makhlin Stanislav of Israel. The Manipuri was leading 5-1 before landing a hard right hook to leave Makhlin’s nose bleeding, which prompted the referee to stop the contest in the first round itself.
Shiva will square off against Yerbolat Seidalliyev of Kazakhstan.