Boxing: Vijender, Suranjoy advance to semis

Guangzhou: World No.1 Vijender Singh and his compatriot Suranjoy Singh assured India of two medals in the Asian Games as the duo moved into the semi-finals of the boxing competitions here on Saturday.

Vijender, a bronze medallist in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2006 Asian Games, won 13-2 in a one-sided affair against South Korea's Deokjin Cho in the quarterfinals of the 75kg category at the Foshan Gymnasium.

Vijender, who also won the bronze in the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, will face Iranian Mohammad Sattapour in the semifinals.

Suranjoy won 4-2 against Uzbekistan's Shahriyor Isakov in the quarterfinals of the 52kg category here. Suranjoy will face Chinese Chang Yong in the semifinals.

Vijender took a 3-0 lead in the first round and in the second round, the South Korean was penalised two points for hitting the Indian below the waistline. Vijender led 9-2 after the second round and in the final and the third round maintained his domination that fetched him four points.

In the light flyweight 49kg category, Amandeep Singh thrashed Pakistan's Muhammad Waseem 11-0 to make the quarterfinals. Amandeep, also a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, will face Filipino Iii Victorio Saludar in the quarterfinals.

Dilbag Singh went down 0-8 to Turkmenistan's Omar Mamedshayev in the pre-quarterfinals.

Besides Viender and Suranjoy, Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) are also in the semifinals assuring India of four Asian Games boxing medals.

In the welterweight category (69kg), however, Dilbag Singh was no match to Turkmenistan's Omar Mamedshayev who beat the Indian 8-0 in the pre-quarterfinals.

Dilbag could not land a scoring punch on his opponent in the entire three rounds of three minutes each.

The Turkmenistan boxer scored one, four and three points respectively in the three rounds to beat the Indian and make it to the quarterfinals.