Tokyo Olympics 2020: Boxer Lovlina Borgohain assures a medal for India by reaching women's welterweight semi-finals

Boxer Lovlina Borgohain assured India of their second medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Friday by winning her quarter-finals match by defeating Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen. All semi-finalists in boxing are assured of a medal. The colour of the medal will be decided after the final result. Lovlina won 4-1 in the last eight bout by split decision.

CREATES HISTORY 🤩@LovlinaBorgohai puts up a brilliant performance and secures 1st medal for 🇮🇳 from boxing in 69 kg at @Tokyo2020 She beat Chinese Taipei's Chen NC 4-1 in QF to reach semis 🥳#RingKeBaazigar#boxing#Tokyo2020#Cheer4India#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/28cpzoUxZY

— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) July 30, 2021

Chen Nien-chin is a 2018 World Boxing Championships gold medallist and 2019 Asian Championships silver medallist. Boroghain is the second women’s boxer from India to win an Olympics medal. Mary Kom had won a bronze at the 2012 London Games. India’s first boxing medal had come through Vijender Singh in 2008. 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 Ukraine’s Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout. Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist and the first female boxer from Assam to qualify for the Games, 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. “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 told PTI. “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. 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. She had caught the infection while visiting her ailing mother Mamoni Borgohain, who underwent a kidney transplant last year. Her father Tiken is a small-time businessman and her elder sister are also kick boxers. Borgohain started out as a kick boxer herself before Sports Authority of India coach Padum Boro, while scouting for talent in Assam’s Golaghat district, noticed her. He introduced her to boxing and she took to it like fish to water, winning a bronze medal in her debut world championship in 2018, following it up with another bronze the next year. She is also a two-time Asian Championships bronze-winner. Raised in Golaghat’s Baro Mukhia village, Borgohain eventually moved to Guwahati to realise her boxing dreams. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu had won India’s first medal at the Tokyo 2020 by clinching the silver in the Women’s 49 kg category. Lovlina will meet Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli in the semis on 4 August around 11 AM IST. With PTI inputs **Click here for complete Olympics coverage**