NAGOYA: Making an appearance in the ongoing edition of the Asian Games for the first time, Lovlina Borgohain put up a clinical display against South Korea's Seong Su-yeon in the women's 75kg quarterfinals at the Nishio Gymnasium to confirm a medal for herself on Monday.
The script went on expected lines as the Tokyo Olympic medallist had beaten the same opponent in the same stage of the competition in the Hangzhou Games which was held in 2023 before going on to win silver.
Lovlina had also beaten her in the 2022 Asian Championships before going on to capture gold.
Now, the Guwahati boxer will go on to face reigning world champion Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan in the semis. Natalya defeated Aziza Zokirova by split verdict (4-1) in the other quarterfinals.
Unstoppable Priya
Later, Priya Ghanghas also marched into the women's 60kg semifinals after a come-from-behind victory over Mijgona Samadova of Tajikistan.
Priya, who recently captured the Commonwealth Games gold medal, was passive at the start as the more experienced Samadova, with her good movement and smart hits, dominated the early exchanges. The southpaw, with her guards down, dictated the terms. She was also quick to use the clinching tactics often, giving Priya no room to employ her power punches.
However, things changed after the start of the second round. Priya, clearly aware that she's down on the scorecard, brought about her tactical intelligence and big punches to the fore to counter her rival. The punches were cleaner and meaner as Samadova just couldn't do what she was doing in the opening round. The final round was more or less the same as Samadova continued to keep the distance while Priya kept up with her point-scoring hits every now and then to eventually walk away as victor. The fightback was complete. The Indian won by unanimous (5-0) verdict.
With Lovlina and Priya's results, the Indian boxing team is now guaranteed to walk away with at least five medals.
On Sunday, Parveen Hooda, Ankush Panghal and Narender Berwal had won their respective bouts to enter the semis, thereby guaranteeing a medal each for the country.
