Asian Games 2026: Ankush Panghal seals males’s 80 kg gold as Indian pugilists dominate

Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], October 2 (ANI): Ankush Panghal continued India’s gold rush on the Asian Games on Friday, sealing India’s third boxing gold of the day, beating Kim Min-seong of South Korea within the males’s 80 kg remaining on Friday. 

The reigning Commonwealth Games champion was at his dominant greatest, turning into the primary Indian man to safe an Asian Games boxing gold since Amit Panghal method again in 2018, as per ESPN. 

Ankush began nicely with a few proper hook makes an attempt into Kim’s physique, and the Korean tried to take care of his distance and counterpunch as Ankush stored up his aggression. The Indian managed a few uppercuts, and a warning level to Kim labored within the Indian’s favour. The Indian packed a variety of energy into his punches, and regardless of a late rally from his opponent, Ankush took the primary spherical 4-1. 

Ankush continued his aggressive strategy within the second spherical, with some fast 1-2s and was dancing very well within the ring. Both pugilists landed some physique pictures as their defence appeared weak. Ankush’s counter-punches stored him in a terrific place. A slugfest in the long run got here, however Ankush nonetheless received the second spherical 5-0, main the rating 20-17 amongst 4 judges. 

In the ultimate spherical, Kim continued to counter-punch, duck, bob and weave as Ankush maintained his lead throughout 4 judges. Kim landed just a few honest punches and a quick left uppercut. But his defence was weak, and he took just a few physique hits as nicely. At the tip of the spherical, Ankush was adjudged the winner. 

This is India’s 74rd medal on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, with 14 golds, 25 silver medals and 35 bronze medals. 

Earlier, Indian boxer Parveen Hooda secured the second boxing gold of the day for India, defeating Chinese Taipei’s Chen Nien-Chen within the remaining of the ladies’s 65 kg occasion on the ongoing Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Friday. 

Parveen secured the gold medal by 3-2 by way of break up resolution, making it the second gold for the nation in boxing after Olympic medalist Lovlina Borgohain’s girls’s 75 kg gold. After having misplaced her 2022 Asian Games bronze resulting from a doping whereabouts failure, this win over a former world champion for a gold marks an enormous redemption for the Indian, as per ESPN. 

Also, India’s sepaktakraw staff bought a cause to rejoice on the again finish of the Asian Games 2026 marketing campaign as the lads’s quadrant secured a bronze medal after a defeat to Japan within the semifinal of their occasion.

The Indian males’s quadrant of Malemnganba Singh Sorokhaibam, Ram Kumar Sharma, Bobby Kumar and Akash Yumnam secured the bronze, dropping 0-2 (12-15, 13-15) to Japan within the semis, as per ESPN. 

This marks India’s third medal in sepaktakraw on the Asian Games, having beforehand received two bronze medals: within the males’s staff regu within the 2018 version in Jakarta and the 2022 version bronze within the girls’s staff regu occasion. 

The Indian quadrant loved a terrific run to the medal, beating the World Cup winners Myanmar within the group stage and ensuring that the contingent didn’t return house empty-handed. 

Earlier, to start out off the day, India produced a surprising upset in girls’s recurve archery as Kumkum Mohod, Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma defeated South Korea 5-3 within the gold medal match on the Asian Games 2026 on Friday to say the nation’s first-ever medal within the self-discipline on the continental showpiece.

The Indian trio held their nerve towards the dominant South Korean aspect, with 17-year-old Kumkum rising because the star of the ultimate and delivering two essential 10s within the closing phases to seal a historic victory, based on ESPN.

Kumkum Mohod and Dhiraj Bommadevara settled for silver within the combined recurve archery staff occasion on the Asian Games 2026 after dropping 3-5 to China’s Zhu Jingyi and Li Mengqi within the gold-medal match.

Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain celebrated her twenty ninth birthday in memorable trend as she defeated China’s Bao Ziyi 5-0 within the girls’s 75kg remaining to win the gold medal on Friday. 

Indian sailor Nethra Kumanan secured the bronze medal within the girls’s dinghy occasion on the Asian Games 2026 on Friday, including one other medal to India’s crusing haul on the Aichi-Nagoya Games.

Nethra recovered strongly within the second and remaining race of the finals after a troublesome opening race to complete on the rostrum. She ended stage on factors with Hong Kong’s Stephanie Louise Norton, however her superior head-to-head outcomes towards Norton gave her the bronze medal.

The medal provides to India’s spectacular efficiency in crusing on the Asian Games, with Indian sailors having already received medals within the males’s and girls’s skiff occasions.

In the third recurve archery medal of the day, India secured a silver medal within the males’s recurve staff occasion on the Asian Games 2026 after dropping 1-5 to South Korea within the remaining right here on Friday, including one other medal to a memorable day for the nation’s archers.

Dhiraj Bommadevara, Yashdeep Sanjay Bhoge and Neeraj Chauhan have been unable to duplicate the ladies’s staff’s earlier upset over South Korea, because the Koreans’ consistency underneath strain proved decisive, based on ESPN. (ANI)