Debutant Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) assured India of their first boxing medal on the ongoing Olympic Video games when she upstaged former world champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese language Taipei to enter the semifinals right here on Friday.
The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four the place she’s going to sq. off towards reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, who hammered Ukraine’s Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout.
Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist, displayed large calm within the face of a plucky opponent, who had overwhelmed her previously.
She was aggressive to start out with, adopted it up with an amazing counter-attacking sport and stored her defence tight within the ultimate three minutes to emerge triumphant.
The teen, who was laid low by COVID-19 final yr and missed a coaching journey to Europe due to it, let loose an enormous scream after the referee raised her hand, pent up feelings lastly getting the higher of her.
Borgohain began out as a kick boxer earlier than Sports activities Authority of India’s Padum Boro, whereas scouting for expertise in Assam’s Golaghat district, observed her.
He launched her to boxing and she or he took to it like fish to water, successful a bronze medal in her debut world championship in 2018, following it up with one other bronze the following yr.
She can also be a two-time Asian Championships bronze-winner.
India’s earlier boxing medals have come by Vijender Singh (2008) and M C Mary Kom (2012). Each of them had received bronze medals and Borgohain would look to raised that.
Earlier, Simranjit Kaur (60kg) misplaced to Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee within the pre-quarterfinals to make an early exit from the Video games right here.
The 26-year-old Indian, seeded fourth, went down 0-5 regardless of a gritty efficiency.
She was spectacular within the opening spherical and appeared to have caught Seesondee on the back-foot together with her measured strategy, sticking to a counter-attacking technique.
Nevertheless, the judges dominated unanimously in favour of the Thai, inflicting Simranjit to be a tad reckless within the second spherical.
The Indian paid for the hyper-aggressive strategy within the first few seconds itself when Seesondee managed to attach some eye-catching left hooks.
The defensive errors within the second put paid to Simranjit’s probabilities and regardless that she gave it her all within the third spherical, it wanted nothing in need of a demolition job to recover from the road.
Nevertheless, that was to not be as she bowed out following a unanimous verdict.
The 29-year-old Thai is a two-time world championships medallist and in addition received a silver within the 2018 Asian Video games. PTI
