Lovlina books Paris Olympics ticket; Preeti, Narender sign off with bronze

Hangzhou: World champion Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) locked an Olympic quota for herself by moving into the final while Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Narender Berwal (+92kg) signed off with bronze medals at the Asian Games here on Tuesday.

Borgohain, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, cleverly managed her bout against Asian Championship silver medallist Baison Manikon of Thailand to win by an unanimous 5-0 decision and remain in the hunt for a gold medal in the continental showpiece.

Preeti, whose father is an assistant sub-inspector in Haryana Police, put up a good show but lost 0-5 to reigning flyweight champion China’s Chang Yuan. She has already secured an Olympic quota.

Narender went down 0-5 to Olympic and world championship medallist Kamshybek Kunkabayev of Kazakhstan in the semifinal to miss out on an Olympic quota.

In a bizarre incident, Sachin Siwach lost his 57kg quarterfinal 1-4 bout to Lyu Ping in three minutes and 7 seconds after the Chinese sustained a cut on his forehead following a clash of the head between the two boxers. Ping had won the first round 4-1 and when it was clear he couldn’t continue boxing due to the bleeding, the judges decided to rule the bout in favour of

the Chinese.