Ulaabaatar Cup: Sonia, Lovlina move into semifinals

India was 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 on Thursday. 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, in 2018, was equally dominating in her 5-0 win over Thailand’s Suchada Panich.

Read: Panghal, Solanki move into semis

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.

Earlier, world and Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (60kg), former Commonwealth Games silver-winner Mandeep Jangra (69kg), Salman Sheikh (52kg) and Etash Khan (56kg) had booked their quarterfinal berths. They will be seen in action on Friday.