Asian Games: Boxers Parveen, Ankush to fight for gold; Narender wins bronze

India's Parveen Hooda and Ankush Panghal stormed into the boxing finals at the Asian Games 2026 after impressive semifinal wins, while Narender Berwal settled for a bronze medal after losing his men's +90 kg semifinal on Tuesday.Parveen defeated China's Li Shu 5-0 in the women's 65kg semifinal before Ankush produced a stunning comeback to beat Uzbekistan's Fazliddin Erkinboev 4-1 in the men's 80kg semifinal.Erkinboev is the reigning world champion in the 75kg category, making Ankush's victory a sensational result on his Asian Games debut.Ankush trailed 1-4 after the opening round but turned the bout around with an impressive display in the next two rounds. He edged the second round 3-2 before dominating the third 5-0 to seal a 4-1 split-decision victory. Four judges scored the bout 29-28 in his favour, while one judge gave the round-by-round verdict to Erkinboev. Ankush has become the first Indian male boxer to reach an Asian Games final since Amit Panghal won gold in the 49kg category at the 2018 Jakarta Games.Earlier, Parveen put on a dominant display against Li Shu. She narrowly won the opening round 3-2 before taking the second and third rounds 5-0 to complete a convincing 5-0 victory. Parveen will face Chinese Taipei's Chen Nien-chin in the gold medal bout. The final berth means Parveen has gone one step further than her performance at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, where she won a bronze medal. That medal was later taken away after the International Testing Agency suspended her for 22 months for a whereabouts failure.Parveen is now only the third Indian woman boxer to reach an Asian Games final, after MC Mary Kom, who won gold in 2014, and Lovlina Borgohain, who won silver at the previous edition.Narender, meanwhile, lost 0-5 to Kazakhstan's reigning super heavyweight world champion Aibek Oralbay in the men's +90kg semifinal.Oralbay controlled the bout with his powerful punches and won all three rounds. Narender fought hard but could not overturn the deficit as the Kazakh boxer secured a unanimous 5-0 victory.Narender thus added another Asian Games bronze to his tally after also winning bronze at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.India have now secured six boxing medals at the ongoing Asian Games, surpassing their five-medal haul from the previous edition.- Ends