New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS): Asian games gold medallist Vikas Krishan (69kg) outpunched Moldova's Vasili Belous to become the lone Indian reaching the semifinals of the World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan Wednesday. He is now assured of at least a bronze.

Devendro Singh (49 kg), Jai Bhagwan (60 kg) and Manoj Kumar (64 kg) had to suffer defeats in their quarterfinal bouts though they all secured a berth in the London Olympics.

Vikas continued his winning run at the Championships with another awe-inspiring performance. The 19-year-old who had already qualified for the 2012 Olympics Tuesday, advanced to the last four with a hard fought victory. With the win, Vikas has now equalled the feat of Vijender Singh, who won a bronze at the 2009 Milan World Championship.

Vikas and Belous were evenly matched and tried hard to penetrate the defence of the other throughout the nine minutes of action. The first round saw them notch up three points each.

Vikas, who was slightly quicker than the Moldovan boxer, relentlessly kept pressing for a breakthrough. He took the crucial one point lead in the second, which turned out to be decisive as the final round fetched equal points for both the players.

The Indian eventually won 9:8. Vikas will take on Taras Shelestyuk of Ukraine in the semifinals. Taras beat World No. 3 and 2009 World Championship silver medallist Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia in the quarterfinals.

There was disappointment for India in the other bout as Jai Bhagwan lost the medal by just a whisker.

Bhagwan was up against Gani Zhailauov of Kazakhstan in the light weight category. Both had very similar style of boxing and were not able to deliver any clean strikes in the opening three minutes of play - the round ended with the score knotted at 3.

Second round continued in a similar vein, but the Kazak boxer was able to squeeze in a few jabs more than Jai, taking a vital one point lead (5:6). The 26-year-old Indian tried hard to gain the advantage but was not able to play his usual game as Gani did not give him enough space. In the end, Jai went down 10:11.