Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jadumani Singh of India defeated Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Thapa to march into the pre-quarters in the Men’s 55kg preliminary round at the Nishio Gymnasium in Nishio on Tuesday.
Jadumani registered a unanimous 5-0 win over the reigning World Championships’ bronze medallist Thapa with a brilliant bout. He was extremely dominant despite having started a bit slowly as his precise punches impressed the judges across the three rounds.
Having bagged the opening two rounds, Jadumani kept dominating the contest and hit a left hook as Thapa faced a standing count in the third round. The Indian boxer bagged the third round too and won the contest with three 30-27 cards and two 29-28 cards.
Jadumani will now be up against Filipino boxer Carlo Paalam in the pre-quarters on Saturday. Paalam is a silver medallist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. He also won a bronze in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
Earlier, Glasgow Games gold medallist Sakshi Chaudhary defeated Paris Olympics bronze winner Aira Villegas in the preliminary round at the Asian Games 2026 to march into the pre-quarters.
Chaudhary outclassed the Filipino pugilist by a unanimous decision of 5-0 as she displayed a stellar performance on her Asian Games debut at the Nishio Gymnasium.
She won all three rounds unanimously with scores of 10-9 and was the superior boxer of the two, with her precise punches being too much to handle for the Paris bronze winner.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist has now moved into the pre-quarters and will be facing current 51kg world champion Alua Balkibekova in a tough fight on Thursday.
Sakshi is already a renowned pugilist and has defeated some of the giants of the game. She got the better of two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen and reigning world champion Minakshi Hooda in the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games 2026. Dropping from 54kg, she defeated Nikhat in the semifinals of the trials, while she beat 48kg champion Hooda in the final to earn a ticket for CWH 2026.
In the CWG 2026, Sakshi won the gold medal after defeating England’s Ruby White in the final 5-0. After a successful CWG, Sakshi kept her eyes on the Asiad.
