Parveen Hooda poses with the coaching staff after the quarter win. Special ArrangementSpearheading India’s boxing campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Parveen Hooda assured a medal with a unanimous 5-0 win against Uzbekistan’s Navbakhor Khamidova — a silver medallist at the 2025 World Championships — in the quarter-finals of women’s 65kg. With her victory, India now have assured three medals in boxing — joining Hooda on the list is Commonwealth Games’ silver medallist Narender Berwal, who scored a win over Thailand’s Adthapong Saengtep via RSC, and Ankush Panghal, gold medallist in Glasgow, who defeated Tajikistan’s Nekruz Salimov.For Hooda, this performance arrives as a shot at redemption. She had won an Asian Games medal in Hangzhou three years ago, but saw it getting chalked off following a suspension by the International Testing Agency for whereabouts failure. The implications of the suspension, however, was not restricted to the continental games — Hooda would also lose her Paris Olympics quota. The Commonwealth Games campaign had not gone according to plans either, where she suffered a defeat against England’s Sacha Hickey in the quarter-final.On Sunday, however, the 26-year-old did not let ghosts of the past haunt her one bit. Khamidova opted for the aggressive route in the first round, but the Indian kept her at bay, using her left jab and foot movement optimally. Once the Uzbek lost steam, Hooda took control of the proceedings, dominating the lion’s share of the last three rounds.Also Read | How an underweight Rohtak girl Parveen got a World Boxing bronze“Navbakhor came with a good pedigree in the 65 kg class and she has defeated most of the best boxers in this class in recent months. We were clear that Parveen has to box from a long distance and manage the bout from there,” Hooda’s coach, Santiago Nieva told The Indian Express after the bout. “Sometimes, Parveen has the tendency to rush in a little too much, but she showed the control and balance through her punches. Navbakhor tried to be aggressive in the first round with her overhand right but Parveen thwarted that boxing from distance and was quick to evade her. That meant Navbakhor was left confused and she was trying to counter. But Parveen used her jab as well as her left hook to perfection. In between, she was good with her back right hand punches too and Navbakhor did not have variations of punches today. It was Parveen’s bout to control.”If not for an upset elsewhere, Parveen would have been staring at a steep challenge against Aida Abikeyeva — gold medallist at the World Championships last year. Instead, she would be facing China’s Li Shu in the semi-final, who defeated the Kazakh pugilist 4-0. Nieva believes his student has the know-how to beat Shu. “The bout between Aida and Shu was very messy and the Kazakh also got a warning. The Chinese did not look very impressive but we will sit down and read her game. Parveen has the game to counter the Chinese,” he said.While Sunday largely played out how the Indian boxing contingent would have ideally preferred, it did not attain the mark of perfection. Sachin Siwach, fresh off a gold medal at the Glasgow games, suffered a 4-1 defeat against home pugilist Shunsuke Kitamoto.Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More Tags:Asian GamesAsian Games 2026