Agony for India at Asian Games boxing: Sakshi Bows out in 2-3 thriller; knee injury stops Sumit

Nagoya: Indian boxer Sakshi Chaudhary exited the Asian Games following a narrow 2-3 pre-quarterfinal defeat to Kazakhstan's Alua Balkibekova in the women's 51kg category on Thursday.

The 26-year-old from Haryana, a former Commonwealth Games gold medallist in Glasgow, struggled to land clean strikes as Balkibekova maintained an advantage throughout all three rounds to advance to the quarterfinals.

Sakshi attempted combination punches, but the Kazakh fighter utilised her right hook to good effect, establishing a 3-2 lead after the opening round. The second round opened at an aggressive tempo, with Sakshi demonstrating increased urgency in pursuit of scoring blows.

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Nevertheless, Balkibekova maintained her upper hand, securing the second round by a 3-2 margin behind strong right-hand strikes.

Trailing on the judges' scorecards, Sakshi was unable to reverse the contest in the final round and was eliminated from the competition.

Earlier, Sumit suffered an agonising setback when he was forced to abandon his men's 70kg pre-quarterfinal bout against Iraq's Al Sarray Ali Qasim Hamdan due to an injury.

The 23-year-old Haryana boxer was leading after two rounds but sustained an apparent knee injury after receiving a punch and falling awkwardly in the third round. The referee subsequently halted the contest, awarding the victory to the Iraqi fighter.

Sumit had previously defeated Thailand's Bunjong Sinsiri 5-0 in his opening bout.

Parveen is scheduled to face Tajikistan's Malika Nozimova in the women's 65kg round of 16 later in the day.

PTI