Lovlina Borgohain assures India boxing medal at Tokyo Olympics
Into the semi-finals, Lovlina Borgohain will get bronze even if she loses. Mary Kom and Vijender Singh are the only Indian boxers who have won an Olympic medal before.
Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain ensured herself a medal in the women’s 69kg category at the Tokyo Olympics after beating Chinese Taipei’s Chen Nien-chin, a former world champion, in the quarter-finals.
Lovlina Borgohain will face Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli, the top seed, in the semi-finals but will win a bronze even if she loses. She became the second Indian women’s boxer after MC Mary Kom (bronze at London 2012) to win an Olympic medal.
The 23-year-old Lovlina, fighting from the red corner, won her bout by a 4:1 split decision at the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena.
Up against an opponent she has never beaten before in three attempts, including the 2018 world championships semi-finals, Lovlina Borgohain looked to go on the offensive early.
The Indian landed a few body blows and left jab and hook combo towards the beginning of the first round but Chen Nien-chin responded with some smouldering rights of her own towards the end.
The judges ruled the opening round 3:2 in favour of Lovlina Borgohain.
With the Chinese Taipei boxer trying more offensive moves to seize the advantage in the second round, Lovlina Borgohain used her height well to keep her distance and snuck in some effective scoring punches at opportune moments.
It was a clean sweep for the Indian in the judges’ end-of-round scorecards.
With Chen needing an overwhelming third round to flip the script, Lovlina Borgohain stuck to her gameplan and focused on negating Chen’s desperate attacks and ensured her win and the medal.
This will be India’s second medal at Tokyo after Mirabai Chanu’s silver in weightlifting.
Lovlina had beaten Germany’s Nadine Apetz in the Round of 16.