Beijing - Thai boxers Manus Boonjumnong and Somjit Jongjohor remain in the hunt for gold medals after winning their respective semi-final bouts Friday while American interest ended with the defeat of heavyweight Deontay Wilder.

Defending light welterweight champion Manus easily outscored Cuba's Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo 10-5 in his bout while Somjit was also impressive in his flyweight semi-final, winning 7-1 against Italy's Vincenzo Picardi.

Somjit will now meet Andris Laffita Hernandez in the final after the Cuban narrowly edged Russia's Georgy Balaksin 9-8.

"The Cuban will be more difficult to beat than Picardi," admitted Somjit. "The thing that I will worry about the most is his counter- punching. I will have to adjust my style by not moving too fast."

Manus faces Felix Daz of the Dominican Republic, who scored a 12-10 victory over Alexis Vastine, not least because the Frenchman was given a warning close to the end for holding.

Vastine dropped to his knees in a mixture of despair and shock at the referee's decision and failed to make up the two-point deficit in the few seconds remaining.

The 21-year-old kicked his kit bag on leaving the ring and collapsed to the ground before being led away by his one of his corner team.

"I won this bout but it was stolen. It was unfair," said Vastine.

Darren Sutherland, the first of three Irish boxers in action, went down 10-3 to Great Britain's James Degale in his middleweight bout.

Degale now meets Cuba's Emilio Correa Bayeaux in the final after Bayeaux beat India's Vijender Kumar 8-5. Kumar's bronze is the first ever boxing medal for his country.

Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine was way too strong for Yakup Kilic in their featherweight semi-final, winning 10-1 with the Turk taking a standing count in the fourth round.

France's Khedafi Djelkhir meets Lomachenko in the final after his opponent Shahin Imranov had to retire injured at the end of the first round.

In the heavyweight division, Italian Russo Clemente proved too strong for Wilder, the last American boxer left battling for an Olympic medal, comprehensively outscoring his opponent 7-1.

Wilder, who only took up the sport in 2005, was outclassed by the 2007 world champion. Clemente now meets Russia's Rakhim Chakhkiev, who beat Cuba's Osmai Acosta Duarte 10-5.