President's Cup: Santosh Kumar enters final

Asian Games silver medallist V Santosh Kumar (64kg) punched his way into the final while Lakhbir Singh (69kg) made his way to the last four at the 21st President's Cup International boxing tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Lakhbir continued to pulverise his opponents as he entered the semifinals of his weight category with another comprehensive victory in the second phase of bouts.

Playing his first international competition since thesilver medal winning performance at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Santosh Kumar was up against Masatsugu Kawachi of Japan in the semi-finals of the Men's light-welter weight division.

The 19-year-old had notched up a splendid victory over local lad Ardan Bachtila in the quarters.

He started well in the opening round of the semi-final, taking a slender one point lead after the opening three minutes of play (2:1). He soon made it a two point game after the second (5:3).

In the third, though Kawachi matched Santosh's punch for punch, the reigning national champion held on to advance to last stage with a 12:9 victory on points.

In the summit clash, Santosh will lock horns with Malinin Alexander of Russia.

However, in the light-fly weight category, 18-year-old Gaurav Bidhuri had to settle for a bronze medal after losing to Ian Clark Bautista of Philipines, the youngest member of the Philippine team.

The 16-year-old who defeated 2010 European Cup champion Alexander Somoilov of Russia, proved to be too much for Bidhuri as he lost the semi-final bout 5:12.

In the welter-weight category, Lakhbir delivered another power packed performance after trouncing Truong Dinh Hong of Vietnam with a knockout punch in the quarter-final bout.

Up against Lee Dong Keun of Korea, the 23-year-old continued his aggressive style of play. The Korean boxer didn't seem to have any answer to the Indian onslaught.

Lakhbir was leading 27:9 in the third round when Keun retired with an injury, handing the Indian the victory and a semi-final spot.

He will now take on Kunkov Alexander of Russia in the next round.

The quarter-final bout in the men's fly weight division saw Santosh Harijan take on Katsuaki Susa of Japan.

Harijan seemed to be out of sorts and could not keep up with the agility of the Japanese boxer. In the end, he lost the bout 16:20.

Jasveer Ahlawat (81kg), a former national champion, will take on Australian Damien Hooper, the Commonwealth Games quarterfinalist in the middleweight division, in the semi-finals of his weight category.