Nishio (Japan): Indian boxers delivered a sensational hat-trick of gold medals at the Asian Games with Lovlina Borgohain (75kg), Parveen Hooda (65kg) and Ankush Panghal (80kg) coming up with contrasting but stirring performances against more fancied opponents in their respective finals in Japan’s Nishio Friday.
Lovlina and Parveen ended a 12-year wait by joining the legendary MC Mary Kom in the select group of Indian women boxers to have won titles at the continental showpiece. The Manipuri had claimed the flyweight (51kg) gold at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
Ankush then became the first Indian male boxer since Amit Panghal in 2018 to win an Asian Games gold medal.
Lovlina defeated China’s Ziyi Bao 5-0 on her 29th birthday to upgrade the silver she had won at the last edition. Parveen then eked out a narrow 3-2 split-decision win over Paris Olympic bronze-medallist Chen Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei to also claim her maiden Asian Games gold.
Ankush out-punched South Korea’s Kim Minseong 4-0 in the 80kg summit clash to end the campaign on a resounding note.
India thus signed off with six medals, including three top finishes, marking its best-ever gold performance at the Asian Games.
The country’s best haul came at the Guangzhou 2010 edition, where the contingent won nine medals — two gold, three silver and four bronze.
“Today is my birthday. It’s a very special birthday, I’m feeling really good. I thought I’d have to gift a gold medal on my birthday. It’s the first time that I got a present for myself. I gave it my all. I didn’t think for a second that I would lose,” Lovlina said after the win.
“It was a very tough fight. But I was always thinking that I just have to win. The last round was very tough. I was winning by 2-1 in the first and second round. So I thought I have to just win the third round.
“The opponent was very strong. I was playing with her for the first time. So I had no idea how she was going to play. I was motivating myself that I have to win. I don’t want to lose.”
Lovlina made the most of her considerable height advantage, while the 20-year-old Bao constantly tried to close the distance and deny the Indian space to work.
The approach made for a messy contest, with Bao resorting to repeated clinches.
In a departure from her usual approach, Lovlina started aggressively, landing a few punches right away, but Bao was equally fierce with her counters.
The Chinese southpaw connected a couple of combinations, before Lovlina finished the round strongly with some clean, heavy punches to edge it 3-2.
Trailing, Bao came out aggressively in the second round, looking to close the distance, while Lovlina tried to keep her at bay and create room for her punches.
The Indian managed to find her range towards the end of the round, landing a series of clean blows to take it 4-1 on the judges’ cards.
The same pattern continued in the final round, with Bao throwing punches in abundance but struggling to land cleanly. Lovlina remained compact in defence and picked her moments to counter.
Having done enough to establish her lead, Lovlina slowed the pace in the closing stages and chose not to engage unnecessarily, keeping Bao at a distance and seeing out the contest.
At the last edition, Lovlina had lost to another Chinese boxer, Li Qian, in the final, settling for silver. This time, she made sure there was no repeat of that result.
Priya Ghanghas (60kg), Kapil Pokhariya (90kg) and Narender Berwal (+90kg) won bronze medals.
The strong showing in the continental event comes on the back of Indian boxers’ record-breaking campaign at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last month.