Lovlina and 3 others march into finals of Asian Boxing C'ships

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     New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain was among four Indian woman boxers to proceed to the finals while two others signed off with bronze medals at the Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan on Wednesday.
     While Lovlina (75kg), Alfiya Pathan (81+kg), Minakshi (52kg) and Parveen (63kg) continued their quest for gold, Ankushita Boro (66kg) and Preeti's (57kg) campaign ended at the last four stage.
     Up against Seong Suyeon of South Korea in her semifinal bout, Lovlina, who is competing in her maiden competition in the 75kg category, effectively utilised her clever techniques and strategies to clinch a 5-0 victory by unanimous decision.
     Lovlina, who has two Asian Championships bronze medals, is now guaranteed a silver in this edition, confirming her best-ever performance in the competition.
     Alfiya was also commanding in her semifinal win as she cruised past the 2016 world champion Lazzat Kungeibayeva of Kazakhstan in a 5-0 win.     
     This is the second time this year that Alfiya has defeated Lazzat, having stunned the Kazakh on her own turf in the Elorda Cup, in what was her senior international debut competition.
     Lovlina will take on the 2021 Asian Championships silver medallist Ruzmetova Sokhiba, while Alfiya faces Islam Husaili of Jordan in the final.
     Minakshi also registered a dominating win over her opponent -- Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg of Mongolia. The Indian was fluent in her attack, earning a 5-0 unanimous decision win.
     World championship bronze medallist Parveen used her jabs to great effect as she also won her semifinal bout against Uranbileg Shinetsetseg of Mongolia via a 5-0 unanimous verdict in the light welterweight category.
     However, Ankushita lost 1-4 to Khamidova Navbakhor of Uzbekistan to secure a bronze medal.
     The 2017 youth boxing champion started well with her energetic approach and landed quick punches to have an edge over Khamidova but the Uzbek boxer rebounded well in the next two rounds to earn the win as well as her place in the final.
     Preeti, on the other hand, was out-punched by Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Sena Irie of Japan.
     Later on Wednesday, Saweety (81kg) will compete in her semifinal.
     India's total medal count of 12 in this edition is the third highest among all competing nations.
     On Thursday, five Indian men boxers including six-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) and two-time Commonwealth bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg) will be competing in the semifinals.
     Thapa, who became the most successful Asian champion in the competition's history with six medals, will be involved in a match-up against two-time Asian medallist Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan, while Hussamuddin will face 2021 World Championship silver medallist Serik Temirzhanov of Kazakhstan.
     Other men pugilists in action will be Narender (92+kg), Sumit (75kg) and Govind Kumar Sahani (48kg).
     The competition is witnessing participation of 267 boxers from 27 top boxing nations. PTI APA ATK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)