Boxer Lovlina Borgohain assured India of a medal in the process by winning the women's welterweight quarterfinal bout at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. Lovlina became the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal after Vijender Singh (men's middleweight bronze, Beijing 2008) and MC Mary Kom (women's flyweight bronze, London 2012).
India's only medal at the Games so far has been silver in the 49kg category of weightlifter Mirabai Chanu.
Lovlina, currently world No. 3, defeated World No. 2 Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei 4-1 to ensure she won at least a bronze medal. The Indian will face Turkey's Busenaz Suramenelli, the reigning world champion and current world No. 1, in the semi-finals on August 4. Surmenelli has won both his previous matches at this Olympics by unanimous decision.
Two-time World Championships bronze medalist Lovlina showed tremendous calm in the face of a daring opponent who defeated her on her way to gold in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Championships. The Indian was aggressive to start and then came out victorious, keeping their defense strong in the last three minutes with a formidable counter-attack game.
The decision to split 3:2 in the first round went in favor of the Indian. Lovlina dominated the second round, with all five judges scoring in her favour. Four out of five judges scored in his favor in the third round. The overall score was 4-1 in his favor.
23-year-old Lovlina, who was let down by COVID-19 last year and missed a training trip to Europe because of it, let out a huge scream after the referee raised her hand, feelings finally getting better. Was. .
“She stuck to a plan to counter-attack and take advantage of her height. She had tried to be aggressive with this girl in the last bout and was defeated. So this time, we told her ‘you stand, let her come. Two. Where you are, let him come to you)', national coach Mohammad Ali Qamar told PTI.
He said, "And how calm mind she showed, she never got excited. She never tried to break in. She executed the plan with perfection. If she had tried to be aggressive, she would have been hit, " They said.
Hailing from the Golaghat district of Assam, Lovlina started out as a kickboxer (like her elder twin sisters Leecha and Lima Borgohain) before switching to boxing in 2012. She came into limelight after winning bronze in 2017 Asian Championships and gold in 2018. India Open.
Lovlina backed her bronze at the 2018 World Championships with another bronze in the 2019 edition of the tournament.
Lovlina secured her Olympic quota by becoming the first woman from Assam to qualify for the Olympics by entering the semi-finals of the Asia and Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification tournament in March 2020. He won the bronze medal after losing in the semi-finals to 2018 world silver medalist Gu Hong. of China.
"The priority for us was to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Once that was done, I probably gave myself some rest, which is why I lost in the semi-finals," she told Olympic Channel at the time.
How was his form coming to Tokyo?
Borgohain tested positive for COVID-19 in October 2020, and missed the Indian contingent's boxing trip to Italy in November.
In 2021, Borgohain competed in the Boxum International Boxing Tournament in Spain, where she lost 0–5 to Saadat Dalgatova of Russia in the quarterfinals.
In this year's Asian Boxing Championships, shifted from New Delhi to Dubai due to the pandemic, Lovlina won bronze from May 24-31.