Asian Games 2026: Ankush Panghal completes India’s boxing gold hat-trick

Ankush Panghal won men’s 80kg gold with a 4-0 victory over South Korea’s Minseong Kim, completing India’s boxing gold hat-trick at the Asian Games. Parveen Hooda and Lovlina Borgohain also won gold, while three Indian boxers secured bronze medals.

Nishio: Ankush Panghal clinched a gold medal in the men’s 80kg final after a superb 4-0 win over Minseong Kim of South Korea at the Nishio Gymnasium at the ongoing Asian Games as India’s boxing campaign came to a fruitful end.

Ankush dominated the bout from the word go and got the ruling of four of the five judges in his favour by 30-26, while one judge tied the two at 28-28. The Korean pugilist was docked a point for warning in the first round.

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Ankush won the first round 4-1 as he landed his punches fiercely. He was even superior in the second round as he bagged it 5-0 with some 1-2s and pounced with counter punches. Kim also landed some punches, but the Indian looked far better.

The Indian produced another display of counter punches in the third round as he blended defence with attack to take the third round 4-1 and won the contest 4-0.

This ended India’s strong boxing campaign with a triple delight as the pugilists brought three gold medals and three bronze medals for a total of six at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.

Parveen Hooda and Lovlina Borgohain also won gold medals previously. Parveen won the closely contested final against Nien-chin Che of Chinese Taipei.

The Rohtak-born boxer began well by winning the first round 5-0, but Che responded in the second round and also won that round 5-0. In the final round, Parveen kept her composure and won the round 3-2, thus securing the gold medal with a split 3-2 verdict.

Parveen is now the third Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Asian Games; legendary MC Mary Kom had won the women’s 51kg event at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Lovlina having added her second gold earlier on Friday.

Lovlina, who turned 29 on Friday, secured India’s first women’s boxing gold in 12 years in the 75kg final by beating China’s Ziyi Bao 5-0.

Lovlina, who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, managed to improve on the silver medal at the Asiad 2022, putting up a dominant performance against Bao to give herself a perfect birthday present.

India won three boxing bronze medals at the ongoing Games too. Kapil Pokhariya (Men’s 90kg), Narender Berwal (Men’s +90kg) and Priya Ghanghas (Women’s 60kg) secured bronze after making their way into the semifinals and losing their last four clashes.

India fielded 11 boxers at the Aichi-Nagoya Games. Sakshi Chaudhary (Women’s 51kg) lost in the round of 16 to reigning world champion Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan. Preeti Pawar (Women’s 54kg) went down to Pang Chol Mi of North Korea in the pre-quarters. Jadumani Singh (Men’s 55kg) also lost in the pre-quarters to Carlo Paalam of the Philippines.

Sachin Siwach (Men’s 60kg) lost to Japan’s Shunsuke Kitamoto in the quarterfinals, while Sumit Kundu (Men’s 70kg) lost to Iran’s Ali Qasim Al-Sarray in the pre-quarters.