Sports Shorts: India assured of 12 medals at Asian Youth Boxing

India's tally of assured medals at the Asian Youth Boxing Championships swelled to 12 after four more boxers from the country advanced to the semifinals, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Wednesday.

Satender Singh (91kg) defeated Korean Haneul Jung to make the last-four in the men's draw. Joining him was Selay Soy (49kg), who put it past Taiwan's Tzu-Chen.

In the women's draw, Poonam (54kg) and Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) made the medal rounds. While Poonam out-punched Philippines' Caranagan Kaye, Arundhati defeated Taiwan's Pin-Ju Chen.

However, it was curtains for the other Indians in fray in Thursday's quarterfinal bouts.

In the men's competition, Akshay Kumar (64kg) lost to Darkhan Duiisebay of Kazakhstan. Also bowing out were Vijaydeep (69kg) and Lakshya Chahar (81kg).

Vijaydeep lost in a split verdict to Rustambek Uulu Nuradin of Kyrgyzstan. Chahar was also beaten in a split decision by Uzbekistan's Shokhjakhon Abdullev.

Among the women, Rajni (48kg) lost to Japan's Sinchara Hikaru in a split decision.

On Tuesday, six Indian boxers had advanced to the semifinals while two others had got a direct entry into the last-four stage owing to the small size of their respective draws.

Prajnesh makes exit but Ramkumar, Mukund, Nagal in quarters of Pune Challenger

India's top singles player Prajnesh Gunnewaran bowed out of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger but Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan set up an all-Indian quarterfinal in Pune.

Also moving to the quarterfinals was Sasi Kumar Mukund as the home players continued to be in title contention.

Top seed Prajnesh had the first opportunity to get break in the decisive set but he could not advantage of the chance and lost 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to Dutch 14th seed Tim Van Rijthoven at the Balewadi Sports Complex.

India number two Nagal just walked into the quarterfinals as his Russian opponent Ivan Nedelko retired at the beginning of the contest due to back spasm. Nagal was leading 2-0 in the opening set when Nedelko withdrew.

He will not clash with sixth seed Ramkumar, who overcame the challenge of Turkey's 12th seeded Cem Ilkel 6-3, 6-4 in one hour 11 minutes .

Eighth Mukund demolished Turkish Ergi Kirkin 6-0, 6-2 in 65 minutes to set up his last-eight clash with second seeded Australian James Duckworth, who prevented another all-Indian quarterfinal by ending the impressive run of Manish Sureshkumar with a 6-1, 6-2 win.

The 20-year-old Sureshkumar took seven ATP points.

Fourth seeded Steven Diez, fifth seeded Jay Clarke and seventh seed Roberto Ortega-Olmedo of Spain were the other players to make it to the last eight.

In the doubles, third seeds Arjun Kadhe and Saketh Myneni edged past Russian pair of Bogdan Bobrov and Ivan Nedelko 6-4, 4-6, 16-14 to move to the semifinals.

They will take on second seed pair of Vishnu Vardhan and Toshide Matsui, who rallied to beat Steven Diez and Roberto Ortega-Olmedo 3-6, 6-2, 10-4.