Asian Elite Boxing Championships | Minakshi and Preeti assure medals for India

Being sharp and nimble-footed, she maintained her consistency throughout the game and won the bout 4:1. Similar to Minakshi, Preeti (57kg) also produced a spirited performance against Turdibekova Sitora of Uzbekistan. The 2021 Asian Youth Boxing champion sustained her balance of strong offence and deft defence till the end to ensure a 5:0 unanimous victory.

Minakshi will face Mongolia's Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg while Preeti will take on Japan's Irie Sena in the semi-finals on November 9. In the other quarter-final, Sakshi (54kg) suffered a 0:5 defeat at the hands of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Hsiao-Wen Huang of Chinese Taipei and bowed out of the competition. Late on Friday night, Ananta Chopade (54kg) booked his place in his quarters with a commanding 5:0 win over Japan's Tanaka Shogo while Etash Khan (60kg) suffered a 2:3 defeat in a hard-fought game against Thailand's Khunatip Pidnuch.

Later on Saturday, 2022 World Championships bronze medalist Parveen (63kg) and 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) will kick off their campaign against Dariga Shakimova and Valentina Khalzova respectively. Seven Indians including 2022 CWG bronze medalist Mohammed Hussamuddin (57kg) and 5-time Asian medalist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) will be contesting in the quarter-finals of the tournament on Sunday.

The other pugilists in action will be Govind Sahani (48kg) Ananta Chopade (54kg), Amit Kumar (67kg), Monika (48kg), and Simranjit Kaur (60kg). Simranjit, the 2018 World Championship bronze medalist is making her comeback and will be facing the Asian Games gold medalist and two-time Asian gold medalist Yeonji Oh of Korea. The competition is witnessing the participation of 267 boxers from 27 top boxing nations.