Asian Games 2026: Sakshi Chaudhary Beats Olympic Medallist Villegas on Her Birthday

Indian boxer Sakshi Chaudhary celebrated her 23rd birthday with a commanding victory over Paris Olympics bronze medallist Aira Villegas of the Philippines, advancing to the women’s 51kg pre-quarterfinals at the Asian Games 2026 on Tuesday.

Sakshi won the round-of-32 bout by a unanimous 5-0 decision in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. She will face Kazakhstan’s Alua Balkibekova in the round of 16 on Thursday.

The victory builds on a successful run for Sakshi, who recently claimed Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow and also has a World Boxing Cup gold to her name.

Sakshi takes control early

Fighting from the red corner, Sakshi began aggressively, landing solid punches and using her jab effectively to take the opening round 5-0, according to ESPN.

Villegas increased the pressure in the second round, but Sakshi countered with clean punches to retain control. Another 5-0 round gave the Indian a strong advantage heading into the final three minutes.

Sakshi then adopted a more measured approach, choosing her attacking opportunities while protecting her lead. Villegas connected with a heavy left hook, but could not turn the contest around as Sakshi sealed a unanimous victory.

Elsewhere in boxing, Jadumani Singh was scheduled to face Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Thapa in the men’s 55kg round of 32.

Kabaddi win, relay final berth

India’s men’s kabaddi team defeated South Korea 63-31 in their Group A encounter.

In swimming, Rishabh Das, Akash Mani, Benediction Beniston and Dhanush Suresh qualified for the men’s 4x100m medley relay final after finishing seventh overall in the heats. Aryan Nehra finished fourth in the men’s 1500m freestyle final B.

Shooters Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane finished fourth in the 10m air rifle mixed team final after placing second in qualification.

In soft tennis, Jay Meena beat Pakistan’s Hussain Arain 4-0 in men’s singles Group D, while Aadhya Tiwari lost 1-4 to Thailand’s Alisha Ziegler in women’s singles Group D.

Setbacks in karate and sepaktakraw

Chetan Bhatt lost his men’s 84kg kumite bronze medal bout. Alisha Choudhary exited the women’s -55kg kumite competition after a 1-6 defeat to Indonesia’s Cok Istri Agung Sanistyarani in the round of 16.

India also lost 0-3 to Malaysia in the men’s team Regu Group B sepaktakraw competition.

Langlentombi Devi Hanjabam placed ninth in the women’s Nanquan final in wushu. In fencing, Sachin and Hemash Singh finished fourth in Pool 1 and Pool 5, respectively, in men’s individual foil.

In equestrian dressage, Ashish Limaye riding Willy Be Dun finished 13th, Arjan Nagra on Cooley Goodwood placed 23rd, and Fouaad Mirza with Camouflage 38 finished 26th.

With inputs from ANI