Sakshi Chaudhary’s Asian Games campaign ends in pre-quarterfinals

India’s Sakshi Chaudhary exited the Asian Games after a 2-3 pre-quarterfinal loss to Kazakhstan’s Alua Balkibekova in the women’s 65kg category. Sumit also bowed out after conceding his men’s 70kg bout against Iraq’s Al Sarray Ali Qasim Hamdan

Nagoya: Indian boxer Sakshi Chaudhary bowed out of the Asian Games following a 2-3 pre-quarterfinal loss to Kazakhstan’s Alua Balkibekova in the women’s 65kg category here on Thursday.

The 26-year-old from Haryana, who won gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, struggled to connect her punches as Balkibekova stayed ahead across all three rounds to secure her place in the quarterfinals.

Sakshi attempted combinations but the Kazakh boxer used her right hook effectively and appeared to have the edge, leading 3-2 after the opening round.

The second round began at an aggressive pace, with Sakshi showing greater urgency and looking to land clean punches. However, Balkibekova continued to stay ahead, again taking the round 3-2 on the strength of her right-hand blows.

Trailing on the scorecards, Sakshi could not turn the bout around in the final round and bowed out of the competition.

Earlier, Sumit suffered a setback after he was forced to concede his men’s 70kg pre-quarterfinal bout against Iraq’s Al Sarray Ali Qasim Hamdan following an injury.

The 23-year-old from Haryana was leading after the first two rounds but appeared to suffer a knee injury after taking a punch and falling awkwardly in the third round. The referee stopped the contest, handing the win to his opponent.

Sumit had beaten Thailand’s Bunjong Sinsiri 5-0 in his opening bout.

Parveen will take on Tajikistan’s Malika Nozimova in the women’s 65kg round of 16 later in the day.