India's Lovlina Borgohain booked her place in the women's 75kg boxing final at the Asian Games after beating Kazakhstan's Natalya Bogdanova in a split decision (3-2) at the Nishio Gymnasium on Wednesday.
The Assam-born boxer will now have a chance to improve on the silver medal she won in the middleweight category at the Hangzhou Asian Games three years ago.
Lovlina did not have the best start to the semifinal, as she lost the opening round 3-2. However, she responded strongly in the second round, winning all five judges' cards.
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Bogdanova fought back in the third round and took it 3-2. However, the Kazakhstan boxer could not create a big enough points advantage to overturn Lovlina's lead, and the Indian boxer eventually sealed the bout by a narrow margin of 3-2.
The final scores of the bout were 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 and 28-29.
Lovlina's Road To The Final
The 28-year-old had entered the semifinal after a convincing win over South Korea's Seong Suyeon. The Indian boxer defeated her opponent 5-0 by unanimous decision to book her place in the last four.
The semifinal victory has now put Lovlina in contention for another Asian Games medal, with the Indian boxer looking to go one step further than her silver-medal finish in Hangzhou.
Lovlina's Commonwealth Games Silver
Earlier this year, Lovlina also won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games as she finished runner-up after losing to Australia's Emma-Sue Greentree in the final.
With another major final now secured, Lovlina will have an opportunity to add a gold medal to her growing list of international achievements and improve on her previous Asian Games performance.
Lovlina will now compete for the gold medal in the women's 75kg final on October 2.
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