‘Pooja Rani could predict the next move of Ichrak Chaib’

Pooja Rani looked at ease in her women’s middleweight bout against Algeria’s Ichrak Chaib as she won 5-0 in a dominant display in the round of 16 clash at Tokyo 2020.

The 30-year-old will next be up against China’s Li Qian in the quarterfinals on Saturday where a win would guarantee her a medal.

The boxer from Bhiwani is playing in her maiden Olympics but made short work of Chaib but ensuring that she stayed out of the way of her wild swings.

“Pooja used her experience. It was a tactical fight in the first round as she waited for the opportunities to attack. She used her leading arm pretty well. Since she is a southpaw, she was using her left hand for straight punches and then the right for hooks. This combination proved to be lethal for her. Moreover, she was hitting her punches right on the face. There was no doubt about the result. It was a one-sided bout,” said former India boxing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu to Olympics.com.

Rani is the first boxer from India to book a ticket to Tokyo 2020 when she reached the semi-finals of the continental qualifiers back in March last year. She is the reigning Asian champion as she won gold in May this year. In fact, she also managed to win against world champion Atheyna Bylon at the Boxam International Tournament where she won silver.

Gurbax Singh Sandhu hailed the performance of Rani and stated that she used her experience to wait for Chaib to attack her as opposed to just taking an aggressive approach to destroy the opponent.

“It was a superb performance. She maintained her calm and did not go for the boxer, instead she waited for the Algerian to come within her range and then showered her punches. It was a great strategy and more importantly, Pooja's experience helped her very much. It was as if she could predict her next move. Wonderful display from her,” said the experienced Sandhu.