India has been assured of a second medal at the Tokyo Olympics with 23-year-old boxer Lovlina Borgohain progressing to the semi-final of the welter weight category.
She has beaten Nien-Chin Chen of the Chinese Taipei 4:1 to assure herself of a medal.
Four boxers are awarded medals in boxing with two winning the bronze and with Lovlina entering the semi-final, she is now assured of at least a bronze, but her sights surely will be on the big gold as she enters the medal weekend of the Olympics.
Up against an opponent she had never beaten in three attempts earlier, Lovlina came out aggressively and attacked Chen from the start, landing a few body blows and left hook-and-jab combinations, winning the round 3-2 after getting 10 points from three of the five judges. Chen got in a few scoring punches but Lovlina defended well and kept the score in check.
In the second round, Chen went on the attack in an attempt to negate Lovlina's advantage but the Indian, who took up combat sport Muay Thai at age 13 before a switch to boxing, used her height and quick feet to keep distance and did not allow her rival any chances to land good scoring punches. Her tactics won approval from the judges as got 10 points from all five judges.
With Lovlina enjoying an overwhelming advantage, Chen went in the hunt for a knockout in the third round but her Indian rival was cautious and maintained her distance and defended well to win the bout 4:1.
Lovlina's semi-final bout is on 4 August where she will face Turkey's world number one Busenaz Surmeneli who has won both her bouts so far with a 5:0 scoreline.
Lovlina was the second Indian boxer in action on Friday with Simranjit Kaur losing to Thailand's Sudaporn Seesondee in the 60kg category's pre-quarter-final. Simran, seeded fourth, lost the bout 0-5.
(With inputs from IANS)
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