Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain celebrated her 29th birthday in memorable fashion as she defeated China’s Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the women’s 75kg final to clinch the gold medal at the Asian Games 2026 on Friday.
Lovlina produced a composed performance in the gold-medal bout, effectively using her counter-punching against an aggressive Bao to secure a unanimous victory.
The Chinese boxer started strongly and unleashed a flurry of punches in the opening round. Lovlina, however, remained patient and responded with effective counters to edge the round 3-2.
Bao continued to press forward in the second round, but Lovlina grew in confidence and landed the cleaner punches. The Indian won the round 4-1 to establish a 2-0 lead on the judges’ scorecards.
With the gold medal within reach, Lovlina maintained her strategy in the third round. She allowed Bao to come forward, avoided heavy damage and looked for opportunities to counter.
The Indian boxer was awarded the round unanimously, completing a 5-0 victory and securing the Asian Games title.
The gold medal capped a memorable campaign for Lovlina, who had earlier defeated Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova 3-2 in a split decision in the semifinal. The victory made her the first Indian woman boxer to reach consecutive Asian Games finals.
Born on October 2, 1997, in Assam’s Golaghat district, Lovlina had won silver in the women’s 75kg category at the Hangzhou Asian Games. She also won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and became world champion in the 75kg category in 2023.
She had earlier won gold at the 2022 Asian Championships and silver at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Lovlina’s Asian Games triumph adds another major title to a career that has already seen her receive the Arjuna Award in 2020 and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021.
The victory also took India’s medal tally at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games to 70 medals, including 12 gold, 24 silver and 34 bronze.
-IANS
