Nagoya, Sep 30 (IANS): The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) president Ajay Singh hailed the Indian boxers’ performance at the Asian Games, saying the team’s six medals from 11 events represented a significant improvement from the previous edition and reflected the strength of the field in the continental competition.
India’s boxing campaign added three bronze medals with Priya Ghanghas, Narender and Kapil Pokhariya finishing their respective campaigns in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Lovlina Borgohain, Ankush Dahiya, Parveen Hooda are in their respective finals.
“We’ve got six medals in this Asian Games out of 11 events. Last time we got four medals out of 13 events that were held. So we’ve done considerably better than the last time. The fact that three boxers are in the finals now, I think, is an incredible achievement given that the Asian Games for boxing is very similar to the Olympics,” Singh told IANS.
“All the top countries in the world are in the Asian Games. So whatever performance we are doing here, it’s very possible that this will be replicated in the Olympics. So getting six medals, out of which three are now in the finals, is an incredible achievement. And we are hoping that tomorrow or day after, when the finals are held, we convert some of those finalists into golds,” he added.
In the women’s 60kg semifinal, Priya, who is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, lost 1-4 to China’s Yang Chengyu and settled for the bronze. The Indian pugilist put forward an attacking performance but was not able to secure enough points over the three rounds to win over the judges.
Narender also won a bronze medal in the men’s +90 kg division after having been defeated 0-5 by Kazakhstan’s reigning world champion Oralbay in the semi-final. Although Narender fought hard, Oralbay was able to keep control of the match through his punching and defensive efforts and thus secured a unanimous decision victory.
Kapil was also eliminated in the final round in the men’s 90kg division, losing 1-4 to Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan, the world champion.
India still has three boxers in contention for gold. Lovlina secured her spot in the women’s 75 kg final by winning a closely contested semifinal against Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova with a score of 3-2.
Parveen and Ankush have also reached the finals appropriate to their events, which means that India now has three chances of adding gold medals to its total in boxing on October 2.
