Tokyo Olympics: Lovlina Borgohain secures 2nd medal for India, marches into semis

India's Lovlina Borgohain secures 2nd medal for the country at Tokyo Olympics

Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain. (Source: Twitter)

Young Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain secured a second medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics with win over Chinese Taipei's Nein-Chin Chen in the women's welterweight category (64-69kg) on Friday (July 30). Lovlina, making her Olympics debut at Tokyo, has marched into the semifinals, assuring India of at least a bronze medal as both losing semifinalists are assured a medal. 

However, India and Lovlina will be hoping for much more as he heads into the boxing semifinals. It is just the second medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics after Mirabai Chanu's weightlifting silver medal.

The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four where she will square off against reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, who hammered Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout.

Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist, displayed tremendous calm in the face of a plucky opponent, who had beaten her in the past. 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 huge scream after the referee raised her hand, pent up emotions finally getting the better of her.

MEDAL ASSURED!!! Lovlina Borgohain wins her quarterfinal bout 4-1 against Taipei's Chen to qualify for the semifinal.

We wish her the best for her semifinal bout.
Stay tuned for more updates. #Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/MvViZFBWs1 — SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 30, 2021

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.

Meanwhile, Indian boxer Simranjit Kaur (60kg) lost to Thailand's Sudaporn Seesondee in the pre-quarterfinals to make an early exit from the Olympic Games. The 26-year-old Indian, seeded fourth, went down 0-5 despite a gritty performance.

She was impressive in the opening round and seemed to have caught Seesondee on the back-foot with her measured approach, sticking to a counter-attacking strategy. However, the judges ruled unanimously in favour of the Thai, causing Simranjit to be a tad reckless in the second round.

The Indian paid for the hyper-aggressive approach in the first few seconds itself when Seesondee managed to connect some eye-catching left hooks. The defensive errors in the second put paid to Simranjit's chances and even though she gave it her all in the third round, it needed nothing short of a demolition job to get over the line.

However, that was not to be as she bowed out following a unanimous verdict. The 29-year-old Thai is a two-time world championships medallist and also won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games.

(with PTI inputs)