Lovlina Borgohain wins historic silver, Parveen takes bronze and boxers finish Asian Games with five medals

Lovlina Borgohain had a smile on her face during the women's 75kg final against China's Li Qian. Not because she was dominating the race but because she had an early indication that the marginal decisions would not go in her favor. It was never going to be easy against a multiple Olympic medal-winning Chinese boxer and the enthusiastic noise of the home crowd at the Hangzhou Boxing Stadium made it doubly difficult, but Lovlina, the reigning world champion and Olympic medallist, had to rise to the occasion. of the circumstances that she could not.

The Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist let the split decision (2-3) that hurt her in the first round of the fight seriously affect her. Her wry smiles were a big indication that she was unhappy with the officers, but what that probably did was divert her attention from giving Qian clear blows.

Both the boxers were tied in the first round and the Chinese boxer got a slight advantage, but as the fight progressed, he slowly became one-way traffic against India. The nail in the coffin of Lovlina's confidence was the penalty warning (one point off) given by the referee in the first minute of the second round. Lovlina received an informal warning in the first round, but the Indian boxer felt her Chinese counterpart was also to blame.

At the end of the second round, four of the five judges felt that Qian was the more impressive boxer, while one judge felt that both were equal. As it was, Qian was well ahead of Lovlina in the total score and the Indian needed something special in the final round to turn the situation around.

Lovlina made a valiant effort and launched an all-out attack, but Qian's defense was too strong. She also got the nod from four judges in the final round, while Lovlina convinced only one judge with her boxing.

The final score said that Lovlina had lost the fight and with it the gold medal by unanimous decision. She bagged silver, India's first at the Asian Games in women's boxing. Mary Kom is the only Indian woman to have won gold in boxing at the Incheon Games in 2014.

The Indian boxing team ended its 2023 Asian Games campaign with 5 medals (1 silver, 4 bronze). The boxers also obtained 4 boxing quotas for the Paris Olympics.

Parveen Hooda wins bronze in women's 57kg

Earlier, Parveen Hooda could not overcome the height disadvantage against two-time world champion Lin Yu Ting of Chinese Taipei in the women's 57kg semi-final and she had to settle for bronze.

Parveen, who won 63kg bronze at the 2022 World Championships, fell to Lin by a unanimous 0-5 verdict.

Standing at five feet seven inches, Parveen was at a disadvantage against Lin due to her height, making it difficult for her to land scoring punches.

Lin, on the other hand, took advantage of her two-inch advantage. The 2018 bronze medalist hit Parveen with a variety of blows as she fought from afar.

Parveen, trailing in all five cards, attempted a more aggressive approach in the second round, but Lin, 27, used her experience to shield herself from the Indian's blows using her agile feet.

Parveen found success sporadically, but that wasn't enough to convince the judges, as Lin continued to land punches consistently.

Lin, who has three World Championships medals to her name, also claimed a bronze at the 2023 edition earlier this year, but was disqualified after failing an eligibility test.

The 23-year-old Indian has already secured an Olympic quota for next year's Paris Games.

Parveen thus became the fourth Indian boxer to emerge with a bronze medal in this edition of the Games.

Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Narender Berwal (92kg) lost in their respective semi-finals to close with bronze medals.