BUSAN, Oct 10: South Korea are in the hunt for 10 gold medals as the Asian Games boxing semifinals begin Friday against a backdrop of complaints over judging.

The hosts will enter 10 of their 12 boxers into the medal rounds, one better than Uzbekistan’s nine, Kazakhstan’s seven and Pakistan’s six after the quarter-finals ended Wednesday.

First into the ring on Friday are flyweights Noman Karim of Pakistan and Kim Tae-Kue of South Korea, in the first of three intriguing matchups of two countries alleged by rival teams to have profited from questionable refereeing verdicts.

The South Korean and Pakistani middleweights and light-welterweights also clash in the last four.

The semis feature two boxers returning to defend their Bangkok Asiad titles — Thai light flyweight Pannon Suban and super-heavyweight Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov of Kazakhstan.

Pannon, the reigning Asian champion, goes up against lone Filipino semifinalist Harry Tanamor on Saturday, while Sydney Olympics silver medallist Dildabekov fights Zhang Junlong of China on Friday.

On Saturday the stellar semifinal matchup should be the welterweight battle between Asian champion Manon Boonjumnong of Thailand and the hosts’ Kim Jung-Joo.

After the South Korean famine in Bangkok in 1998 he would only say that their best prospects lay in the lighter divisions.

The main South Korean opposition at these Games are the former Soviet republics. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan collected six golds between them in the heavier divisions in Bangkok.

Thailand, winner of five boxing golds four years ago, managed just four semifinalists this time.

The fights for the medal spots this week were marked by bitter complaints among the Thais and some other countries about several verdicts.

“There are many complaints about some of the bouts involving the hosts and boxers from Pakistan,” said Filipino trainer Nolito Velasco, who claims their bantamweight and flyweight fighters were cheated out of semifinal places.

Jordan’s lone boxer, heavyweight Yousef Hasan, made sure the judges knew what he thought of them when he slumped in a heap on the canvas after being declared the loser of his quarter-final bout with the hosts’ Lee Hyun-Song.

Amateur boxing supremo Anwar Chowdhry bristles at charges the judges favored Pakistani fighters or the South Koreans, saying that in 18 years he had headed the International Amateur Boxing Association, Pakistan’s best result was a single Olympic bronze medal.

Korean Amateur Boxing Federation president Kim Sung-Eun also rejected allegations of cheating.

Just 12 of the 32 countries in the boxing draw managed to send their fighters into the medal rounds.

Two other boxers from China, two each from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Syria, Asian lightweight champion Yusoh Adnan of Malaysia round up the last 48.—AFP