Lovlina Borgohain won gold in the women’s 75kg boxing final at the Asian Games on Friday, beating China’s Bao Ziyi 5-0 in a unanimous decision. The win came on her 29th birthday.

She is only the second Indian woman boxer to win an Asian Games gold. Mary Kom was the first, at Incheon in 2014.

Lovlina fought a smart bout at the Nishio Gymnasium. Bao pressed hard in the first round, but Lovlina took it 3-2 with counter-punches. She then won the last two rounds 4-1 each.

She had beaten South Korea’s Seong Suyeon 5-0 in the quarterfinals and Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova 3-2 in the semifinals. This is her first Asian Games gold after silver at the previous edition.

The Assam boxer is a Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist and the 2023 world champion. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called her to congratulate her, calling her the state’s “Golden Girl”.