Boxer Lovlina settles for silver, Parveen signs off with bronze in Asian Games

Tokyo Olympic medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain was out-punched in the lop-sided final to settle for a silver while Parveen Hooda signed off with a bronze medal at the Asian Games here on Wednesday.

Borgohain, the reigning world Asian champion, was thrashed by home favourite and two-time Olympic medallist Li Qian in the 75kg final.

With Borgohain's loss, India's campaign came to an end. The country's boxers thus signed off with five medals including one silver and four bronze.

Parveen couldn't overcome the height disadvantage against two-time world champion Lin Yu Ting of Chinese Taipei in the women's 57kg semifinal.

Parveen, who won the 63kg bronze at the 2022 World Championships, went down to Lin via a 5-0 unanimous verdict.

Standing at five feet and seven inches, Parveen was at a disadvantage against Lin because of her height, which made it difficult for her to land scoring punches.

Lin, on the other hand, capitalised on her two-inch advantage. The 2018 bronze medallist pounded Parveen with a range of punches while fighting from afar.

Trailing on all five cards, Parveen tried a more aggressive approach in the second round but the 27-year-old Lin used her experience to ward off the Indian's blows by using her nimble feet.

Parveen did find success sporadically but that was not enough to convince the judges as Lin kept on landing punches consistently.

Lin, who has three World Championships medals to her name, had also grabbed a bronze in the 2023 edition earlier this year, but was disqualified after she failed an eligibility test.

The 23-year-old Indian has already secured an Olympic quota for next year's Paris Games.

Parveen thus became the fourth Indian boxer to leave with a bronze medal at this edition of the Games.

Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Narender Berwal (+92kg) all lost in their respective semifinals to sign off with bronze medals.