Lovlina guarantees India’s second medal; Sindhu reaches semi-finals to stay in hunt
TOKYO: Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain has firmed her sights on going beyond a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The 23-year-old was assured of bagging a medal ater defeating former world champion Chen Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei 4-1 to enter the semifinals of the welterweight category. She is now in line to become the third Indian boxer ater Vijender Singh and Mary Kom to win an Olympic medal.
Before this match, Lovlina had lost to Chen four times. “I knew I lost to this girl four times before. So, it was a challenge for me to prove to myself. I never thought about proving to others. I thought this was a golden opportunity for me to take my revenge of previous losses against her. There was no strategy while going to the ring. Whatever situation was there, I will handle it there itself. I am happy I bagged the chance to do well. I played whole-heartedly and enjoyed it,” said a smiling Lovlina in a press interaction organised by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
Before making a foray into boxing, Lovlina was into Muay Thai, a form of martial arts from Thailand. Asked whether training in it helped in grasping boxing, Lovlina said, “I had learnt Muay Thai for a year. There used to be one or two punches. I can’t say that Muay Thai helped me in geting the medal. But it did help me a litle bit. When I got into boxing, I used the one or two punches from Muay Thai in winning the national sub-junior championships.”
She was firm on her next target: a gold medal. “I don’t want to stop at bronze. I want to go for the gold. Medal is only one. That is gold. For that I have to prepare and plan for the semi-final fight.”
SIN DH U KEEPS MEDAL HOPES ALIVE: P VS indhu, the 2016 Olympics silver medallist and reigning world champion, quelled a superb fightback by Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi to win in straight games and reach the semi-finals in women’s singles badminton competition at the Olympic Games on Friday.
Sindhu seeded sixth here, beat fourth seed Akane 21-13, 22-20 in 56 minutes.
Sindhu, ater winning the first game comfortably 21-13, was cruising towards victory, having opened up an 11-6 lead in the second game, when Akane started a superb fightback. The Japanese shutler who had been outplayed by Sindhu in the first game with deceptive and disguised shots, switched tactics to engage the Indian, seeded sixth here, in long rallies, and tire her out.
And it looked like Akane would succeed as she fought back from 6-12 down to win 10 of the next 12 points, catching up with Sindhu at 15-15 and taking the lead.
Sindhu checked her progress by tapping into her energy reserves as she tightened her game, broke Akane’s rhythm with atacking play, and saved two match points to win the game and match at 22-20.
From 18-20, Sindhu won the next four points with superb atacking play, keeping Akane on her toes with half-smashes and pin-point drop shots to seal victory in 56 minutes.
Sindhu, looking to add a gold medal to the silver she won in Rio, dominated her Japanese rival at the net, created points with her disguised shots, and completed straight games win.
The Indian 26-year-old shutler from Hyderabad was in total control of the first game and then quelled a strong fightback by Akane to reach the semi-finals for the second successive Olympics.
Sindhu was really happy with her performance against Akane but was focused on the next match.
INDIANMEN’SHOCKEYTEAMBEATJAPAN: India defeated host Japan 5-3 in their final preliminary match in men’s hockey Group A to finish their proceedings in second place behind world No. 1 Australia in the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
This is India’s best performance in the league phase in the last four decades as they had last finished second in the group in the 1980 Moscow Olympics when they won their eighth and last gold medal so far.
But that was a depleted field and before that India had finished second in their preliminary group in the 1972 Munich Olympics when they last made the semifinals by topping Group B ahead of Netherlands in the 16-team, two-pool competition.
On Friday, India looked in control as they surged to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter. But Japan came storming back to level the scores 2-2 early in the third quarter before Graham Reid’s India tightened their game, launched some good atacks to score three more goals to put the result beyond doubt. Japan scored their third goal in the last minute but it was too late.
Gurjant Singh (17th min, 56th min) scored a brace while drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh (13th min), Shamsher Singh (34th min) and Nilakanta Sharma (51st min) contributed a goal each for India. Kenta Tanaka (19th min), Kota Watanabe (33rd min) and Kazuma Murata (59th min) scored the three goals for Japan.
India ended their campaign with 12 points from four wins and one defeat and finished one point behind Australia who were held to a 1-1 draw by Spain in the morning. Spain, New Zealand, and Argentina are contesting for the remaining two quarterfinal spots from Pool A.