New Delhi: Fourth seed Shiva Thapa (60kg) advanced to the Asian Boxing Championship quarterfinals with a hard-fought victory, in Tashkent on Tuesday.

Shiva, a World Championships bronze-medallist and a two- time medallist at the Asian meet, edged past Kyrgyzstan's Omurbek Malabekov in a split verdict to make the last-eight stage.

Shiva will face Chinese Taipei's Chu-En Lai in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Also advancing to the quarters was Sumit Sangwan (91kg), a former gold medallist at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers. He defeated Mongolia's Erdenebayar Sandagsuren in his last-16 bout late last night. Up ahead for Sumit is third-seeded Chinese Fengkai Yu.

Vikas Krishan (75kg), Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) and Amit Phangal (49kg) are the other Indian boxers to have entered the quarters so far.The tournament, featuring 179 boxers from 28 countries, is a qualifier for the August-September World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.