12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, May 11: Three Pakistanis booked tickets to Athens for Olympics after reaching the finals at the third qualifying boxing tournament on Tuesday.

Sohail Baloch, Faisal Kareem and Ahmad Ali Khan qualified for August's Games in the Greek city to join compatriots light- flyweight Noman Kareem, bantamweight Meherullah and lightweight Asghar Ali Shah who have already booked places for Olympics.

Middleweight Ahmad was declared winner amid boos after Turkmenistan referee Noor Mohammad disqualified the South Korean Cho Deok Jin with the third warning in the final round at KPT Sports Complex.

The lanky Pakistani, who earned a controversial victory against Mehdi Ghorbani in the quarterfinals on Monday, sparking strong protest from Iran, was weary and subdued against the South Korean from the beginning.

Ahmad from the outset appeared on the defensive in the first round and hardly landed point winning punches. While Ahmed tried to defend himself Noor warned Jin for lowering his head in the second round.

Despite having an advantage of longer reach Ahmed mostly missed the target in the third round, while Jin did most of the scoring. Noor, who was shown disrespect by Syrian featherweight Yaser Shighan who threw a five-dollar bill towards him after losing to Pakistan's Sohail, gave Jin warnings twice for the same offence in the fourth round and disqualified the South Korean.

Jin could have emerged easy winner on points against a subdued Ahmad had the South Korean not been disqualified. Light-welterweight Faisal did not seem to be a match against superior Yang Hyun Tae of South Korea, but was declared a 16-12 winner as the crowd booed and expressed disappointment over the decision.

The South Korean scored points at will throughout the bout and was out of reach of shorter Pakistani who kept on trying to find the target but in vain. Tae continued to toy with home boxer in the second round fully utilising his better reach while Faisal was cautioned by the referee for lowering his head.

After the third round that did not see much action, the South Korean had Faisal on the ropes, scoring points as the local boxer just tried to avoid being hit. Sohail was, however, impressive against the Japanese Terukado Shoyama qualified for the featherweight final after a RSC/OS verdict in the second round.

The Pakistani maintained his superb form he has been displaying since the tournament began and got off impressively in the opening round, although Japanese scored few points.

Sohail did not give Terukado room to recover in the second round when he hammered the Japanese with straight left, right punches followed by a series of jabs. The severe thrashing by Sohail ended only after referee stopped the fight because of over scoring, the Pakistani leading the bout 25-5.

Thailand ended the day with mixed fortunes as two of their four pugilists managed to advance into finals. Bantamweight Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand defeated Kazakhstan's Berik Srikbayev 30-22, while Thailand's middleweight Suriya Pasathi Nphimai beat Koji Satou of Japan on RSC/OS verdict.

Lightweight Chen Tongzhou of China saw off Thai Piichai Sayota 24-19 and another Thai Manon Boo njumnong lost to Artayev Bahktiyar of Kazakhstan 16-21 in welterweight category.

Two Indians Diwakar Prasad and Vijender also qualified for the Olympics beating their respective rivals. Prasad got the better of Jordan's Ibrahim Al Gharair 27-15 in bantamweight and light-welterweight Vijender beat Morteza Sepahvandi of Iran 27-24.

Results (semifinals):

Light-flyweight: Hong Moo-Won (South Korea) bt Toshiyuki Iqarashi (Japan) 36-11; Harry Tanamor (Philippines) bt Namajonov Otabek (Uzbekistan) 36-14.

Flyweight: Rakhim Zhanov (Kazakhstan) bt Badar Uugan (Mongolia) 31-19; B. Yusak Saweho (Indonesia) bt Kaoru Murahashi (Japan) 19-15.

Bantamweight: Worapoj Petchkoom (Thailand) bt Berik Srikbayev (Kazakhstan) 30-22; Diwakar Prasad (India) bt Ibrahim Al Gharair (Jordan) 27-15.

Featherweight: Asylbex Talasbaev (Kyrgyzstan) bt Meretniyazov I (Turkmenistan) 28-17; Sohail Baloch (Pakistan) bt Terukado Shoyama (Japan) RSC/OS/II.

Lightweight: U. Munkh Eldene (Mongolia) bt Adnan Yusoh (Malaysia) 32-21; Chen Tangzhou (China) bt Piichai Sayota (Thailand) 24-19.

Light-welterweight: Vijender (India) bt Morteza Sepahvandi (Iran) 27-24; Faisal Kareem (Pakistan) bt Yang Hyun Tae (South Korea) 16-12.

Welterweight: S. Karimi Ahmedabad (Iraq) bt R. Feros Christoper (Philippines) 29-20; Artayev Bahktiyar (Kazakhstan) bt Manon Boo njumnong (Thailand) 21-16.

Middleweight: Suriya Pasathi Nphimai (Thailand) bt Koji Satou (Japan) RSC/OS; Ahmad Ali Khan (Pakistan) bt Cho Deok Jin (South Korea) disqualified.

Light-heavyweight: Haydarov (Uzbekistan) bt T. Jabari Dastjerd (Iran) 29-14; Kurbancv SA (Turkmenistan) bt Alidodov Mavlodod (Tajikistan) 40-27.