India’s Second Medal Assured By Lovlina Borgohain In Boxing

• ByAyushi Ray     |    July 30, 2021

The Tokyo Olympics have not been going great for India,so far. After Meerabai Chanu’s silver medal on Day 1 of olympics, it has only been a series of heartbreak. After almost a week since that, Lovlina Borgohain assures India second medal in boxing as she moves up into the semis.Lovlina defeated Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen by 4-1 split decision in the quarter-final and will take on Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli in the semi-final. She had defeated Germany’s Nadine Apetz, a boxer nearly 12 years elder to her, 3-2 to reach the quarterfinals. Borgohain, is a two-time world champion bronze-medallist, who displayed tremendous calm in the face of a plucky opponentt. She was aggressive to start with, followed it up with a tremendous counter-attacking game and kept her defence tight in the final three minutes to emerge triumphant. 

The youngster, who was laid low by COVID-19 last year and missed a training trip to Europe because of it, let out a celebratory scream after the referee raised her hand, pent up emotions finally getting the better of her. India’s previous boxing medals have come through Vijender Singh (2008) and M C Mary Kom (2012). Both of them had won bronze medals and Borgohain would look to better that. “She stuck to the plan of counter-attacking and taking advantage of her height. She had tried being aggressive with this girl in the previous bout and lost. So this time, we told her ‘aap khade raho, usko aane do’,” national coach Mohammed Ali Qamar said. “And what a cool mind she displayed, never got excited. Never tried to barge in. She executed the plan to perfection. Had she tried to go on offensive, she would have ended up getting hit,” he said.

Follow Startup Story