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World champion Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) locked an Olympic quota for herself by moving to the final while young Indian boxer Preeti Pawar (54kg) signed off with a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Tuesday. Borgohain, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, cleverly managed her bout against Asian Championship silver medallist Baison Manikon of Thailand to win by an unanimous 5-0 decision and book her ticket for next year’s Paris Games. Preeti, whose father is an assistant sub-inspector in Haryana Police, put up a good show but lost 0-5 to reigning flyweight champion China’s Chang Yuan. She has already secured an Olympic quota. (Asian Games Medals Tally | Asian Games Full Schedule)
Both the southpaw boxers showcased their high skill and ring IQs in the opening three minutes. While Preeti looked to poke and peck with a right hook, the Chinese kept landing right hooks.
At one point, the 19-year-old Indian landed a double jab, followed by two right hooks and two body shots to score crucial points. But Chang replied aggressively with a right cross and a flurry of jabs.
The Chinese boxer was cleaner with her punches and the four of the five judges ruled in her favour in the opening round.
In the second round, Preeti dialled up the intensity, trying to break Chang’s defence. But the Chinese, who enjoyed the crowd support, defended well, moving around the ring.
Chang was warned a couple of times for hitting behind the head of Preeti. Having done enough, the Chinese boxer continued to defend in the final three minutes to take the win.
In the 75kg semifinal, Borgohain controlled the bout by using her long reach and kept landing straight punches.
Trailing after the opening round, Manikon went all out in the next three minutes only to lose steam in the final round. Borgohain was the fresher of the two in the final round and just evaded whatever little punches Manikon threw at her.
Later in the day, Sachin Siwach (57kg) will play his quarterfinal against local favourite Lyu Pin while Narender will take on Kazakh boxer Kamshybek Kunkabayev in the 92kg semifinal.
Indian divers continue to disappoint at Asian Games
Indian divers continued to disappoint as Siddharth Bajrang Pardeshi and London Singh Hemam failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 3m springboard event at the Asian Games, finishing a lowly 16th and 17th in the preliminary stage on Tuesday.
While Siddharth ended on 17th spot in the preliminary stage with total points of 236.35, London finished on the last spot garnering 207 points.
A total of 12 divers qualified for the final with China’s Zongyuan Wang (494.05), Jaegyeong Yi of Korea (425.30) and another Chinese Jiuyuan Zheng (420.65) finishing on top three spots in the prelims.
On Monday, London had finished 12th in the men’s 1m springboard diving event with total points of 207.80.
While London’s campaign ended, Siddharth will be in action in the men’s 10m platform event on Wednesday, the final day of diving competition in the continental showpiece.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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