Published: September 28, 2026 at 9:54 pm
Indian boxers, led by Lovlina Borgohain, had a field day at the Asian Games 2026 as six of them stormed into the semifinals at the Nishio Gymnasium in Aichi.
Lovlina defeated the Republic of Korea’s Suyeon Seong by a 5-0 unanimous decision in the women’s 75kg quarterfinals to progress to the semifinals. The victory guaranteed the Olympic bronze winner her second Asian Games medal. Lovlina bagged silver in the same category at Hangzhou 2023.
Monday’s contest was Lovlina’s first boxing bout at Aichi-Nagoya 2026 after she received a direct entry into the quarterfinals. Lovlina won all three rounds on each of the five judges’ scorecards, with identical scores of 30-27.
After edging an open first round, the Indian used her reach effectively to counter Seong in the second before pressing home her advantage with sharp combinations in the final round.
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Lovlina will face Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova, the reigning world champion in the women’s 70kg division, in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Priya Ghanghas defeated Tajikistan’s Mijgona Samadova, an Olympian, 5-0 in the women’s 60kg quarterfinals
Priya Ghanghas and Kapil Pokhariya also assured themselves of medals on Monday to take the number of Indian boxers in the semifinals to six.
Priya defeated Tajikistan’s Mijgona Samadova, an Olympian, 5-0 in the women’s 60kg quarterfinals. After a close opening round, the Commonwealth Games champion improved considerably over the next two and will face the People’s Republic of China’s Yang Chengyu in the semi-finals.
Kapil completed India’s quarterfinal campaign with a 5-0 victory over the Republic of Korea’s Kim Gichae in the men’s 90kg category. They joined Ankush Panghal, Parveen Hooda and Narender Berwal, who had booked their respective semifinal spots on Sunday.
Ankush beat Tajikistan’s Nekruz Salimov 5-0 in the men’s 80kg quarterfinals, while Parveen recorded an identical verdict against Uzbekistan’s Navbakhor Khamidova in the women’s 65kg.
Narender progressed from the men’s +90kg quarterfinals after his bout against Thailand’s Adthapong Saengtep was stopped by the referee in the opening round.
Ankush will face Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Erkinboev, Parveen takes on China’s Li Shu and Narender meets reigning world champion Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan in Tuesday’s semifinals.
With six semifinalists, India have surpassed their boxing haul from Hangzhou, where the contingent initially returned with five medals – one silver and four bronze.
Sachin Siwach was the only Indian boxer to bow out in the quarterfinals at Aichi-Nagoya 2026. The Commonwealth Games champion lost 5-0 to Japan’s Shunsuke Kitamoto in the men’s 60kg.
Sakshi Chaudhary, Preeti Pawar, Jadumani Singh and Sumit Kundu were eliminated in the round of 16. Sakshi, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, opened her women’s 51kg campaign with a 5-0 victory over Olympic medallist Aira Villegas of the Philippines before losing 3-2 to Kazakhstan’s Alua Balkibekova.
India’s best-ever boxing performance at the Asian Games came at Guangzhou 2010, where the contingent won nine medals – two gold, three silver and four bronze. The strong showing in Aichi-Nagoya comes on the back of India’s best-ever boxing campaign at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow.
