Asian championships – The Hindu

Three Indian women, including Preeti Pawar (54kg), who shocked Paris Olympics bronze medallist Im Aeiji, entered the finals while Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain lost in the semifinals of the Asian boxing championships on Monday.

Olympian Preeti beat Korean Im 5-0 to set up a summit clash with three-time World champion and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Huang Hsiao-wen of Chinese Taipei.

Priya (60kg) and Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) won their respective last-four bouts against local favourite Namuun Monkhor and Uzbek Oysha Toirova with 5-0 and 4-1 margins respectively. Priya will meet North Korea’s Un Gyong Won, while Arundhati will face Kazakhstan’s Bakyt Seidish in gold medal matches.

Alfiya Pathan received a direct spot in the 80+kg final.

Two-time World champion Nikhat (51kg) suffered a 0-5 defeat at the hands of Olympic champion Wu Yu, while Ankushita Boro (65kg) bowed out 0-3 to Olympics bronze medallist Nien-Chin Chen.

Olympic medallist Lovlina (75kg) and Pooja Rani (80kg), beginning from the last-four stage, lost to Uzbek Worlds bronze medallist Aziza Zokirova and Kazakhstan’s former Worlds bronze medallist Nadezhda Ryabets with 0-5 and 1-3 margins respectively.

The results: Semifinals: Women: 51kg: Yu Wu (Chn) bt Nikhat Zareen 5-0; 54kg: Preeti Pawar bt Im Aeji (Kor) 5-0; 60kg: Priya bt Namuun Monkhor (Mgl) 5-0; 65kg: Nien-Chin Chen (Tpe) bt Ankushita Boro 3-0; 70kg: Arundhati Choudhary bt Oysha Toirova (Uzb) 4-1; 75kg: Aziza Zokirova (Uzb) bt Lovlina Borgohain 5-0; 80kg: Nadezhda Ryabets (Kaz) bt Pooja Rani 3-1.