Plucky Borgohain a win away from medal
There was a bright spot for India at the Olympics on Tuesday when boxer Lovlina Borgohain, making her Olympic debut, defeated German veteran Nadine Apetz to enter the quarter-finals in the 69kg category. If Borgohain wins her next bout to enter the semis, she is guaranteed at least a bronze.
Borgohain prevailed over Apetz 3-2 in what was a tense, closely fought match.
The 23-year-old from Assam is a two-time World and Asian championships bronze-medallist and is the first from the nine-strong Indian boxing contingent to move into the quarterfinals.
Apetz, 35 is the first German woman to qualify for a boxing event at the Olympics. She is a two-time world championship bronze medallist, a former European champion and is pursuing a PHD in neuroscience, which she put on hold to prepare for Tokyo.
Borgohain began with a flourish by going on the attack first in the opening round, but changed tactics after that, waiting for Apetz to make her move and then slipping in with strong left hooks.
“There was no point in being too offensive, Lovlina was smart enough to keep the score ticking by hitting on the counter-attack,” national women’s coach
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Mohammed Ali Qamar told PTI. “Early on, when she was going for attack, Lovlina was getting hit, then we told her to play on counter and keep her guard up.”
Borgohain had reached the semis and won a bronze in successive world championships (2018 and 2019) but, like most amateur boxers, she has had a long break from competitive boxing because of the pandemic. She has had to overcome training disruptions too—first due to the lockdown last year, when training in all sports had come to a halt.
Then, hours before she was to board the flight for Italy for the European tour in October, which would have marked her competitive return after seven months, she tested positive for Covid-19. She had to be hospitalized in New Delhi.
Borgohain began boxing when she was 14. At that time, she was training in Muay Thai, but a coach convinced her to try out for the Assam sub-junior team for the boxing national championships. She got picked, and with bare minimum training, she got a gold there.
The lanky boxer will face Chinese Taipei’s Nien-chin Chen, who is seeded fourth and a former world champion, on July 30. On Wednesday, Asian champion Pooja Rani (75kg) will square off against Algerian youngster Ichrak Chaib. The 30-year-old Rani is also making her Olympics debut.