Games-Boxing-Thai superstar toys with Mongolian

   BANGKOK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - A superstar arrived at 
Sunday's boxing quarter-finals as Thailand continued its 
march towards the medal rounds and a fairytale ended.
   Olympic gold-medal featherweight Somluck Khamsing showed 
why he is treated like a superstar in his native Thailand 
in a one-sided bout with Jamgan Narantsogt of Mongolia.
   In the following bout in the same division, Vilasack 
Khouandy's bid to win the first Asian Games boxing medal 
for Laos ended when he was outpointed by Noribisa Tomimoto 
of Japan.
   Somluck floated around the ring in his match with 
Narantsogt, staying clear of the Mongolian's punches with 
ease and hitting at will with his well-timed right.
   Bored in the final rounds, the Thai champion dropped his 
guard and threw fake punches as he toyed with Narantsogt.
   He left the arena still wearing the broad grin he came 
in with, mobbed and cheered by his passionate fans.
   Thai coach Juan Fontanial, delighted at having achieved 
an Asian Games record by putting eight of his team through 
to the semi-finals, believes Somluck gets better the more 
fans there are.
   "It doesn't distract him at all. In fact he feeds off 
the attention," the Cuban said.
   On the other hand, Vilasack and his team were distraught 
with the large 14-3 points decision in favour of Japan's 
Tomimoto.
   Vilasack, the best in Lao's pool of only seven 
registered amateur boxers, fell to the canvas when he 
learnt he would not be going through to fight a David and 
Goliath semifinal against Somluck.
   In the other half of the featherweight draw, Tulkunbov 
Turgunov of Uzbekistan and Filipino Eric Canoy will meet in 
an intriguing semifinal.
   Turgunov is rated number one ahead of Somluck in the 
world amateur rankings and won a patient points decision 
against Ishankuli Meretniyazov of Turkmenistan.
   Meretniyazov did not come out of his defensive shell 
until searching for points in the fifth and final round and 
Turgunov capitalised by landing some solid scoring punches.
   Canoy's fight followed a similar pattern with the 
Filipino opening up Iran's Bijan Batmani with body punches 
in the later rounds.
   The Philippines have disappointed as much as Thailand 
has impressed and Canoy is their last hope for a medal.
   In the boxing at the last Asian Games in Hiroshima four 
years ago, the Philippines topped the gold medal table.
   In the light middleweight quarter-finals, world number 
two Yermakhan Ibraimov of Kazakhstan emerged as the man to 
beat after he outpointed Uzbekistan's Ikrom Berdiev
   He faces the tactical fighting of Thailand's Komgrit 
Nanakon who disposed of Iran's big punching Esfandiar 
Mohammadi by scoring more often with counter-punches, but 
the Kazak has ringcraft as well as power.
   The semifinal in the other side of the middleweight draw 
will be between Jung-Bin Im of South Korea, who defeated 
Nourbek Cassanov of Kyrgzstan, and Mongolian Batmunkh 
Enkhbayar, who accounted for Japan's Takayuki Fukuda.
   Both fighters won free swinging contest on points.
   In the super heavyweight category, Lazizbek Zokirov of 
Uzbekistan won on points over Ali Mansour of Lebanon and 
Shahid Shahid of Pakistan ousted India's Harpal Singh to 
set up one semifinal.
   The other wil be between Mohammad-Reza Samadi, who beat 
Mijiti Abuduxikeer of China on points, and Kazakhstan's 
Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov, who had a bye because only seven 
competitors are in the giant division.