Assam boxer Lovlina Borgohain one step away from medal

First woman boxer from Assam at the Games came up with a commanding display over experienced Germany pugilist to reach quarters

Standing between Borgohain and an Olympic medal is the imposing fourth seed Nien-Chin Chen. The 24-year-old from Chinese Taipei handily defeated Borgohain in the semifinals of the 2018 Worlds in New Delhi, going on to win the gold medal.

TOKYO: India's Lovlina Borgohain beat Germany's Nadine Apetz, a boxer nearly 12 years elder to her, 3-2 to reach the quarterfinals in the women's 69kg boxing event at the Tokyo Olympics here on Tuesday.

Lovlina, the 23-year-old from Assam, prevailed over her 35-year-old opponent from Cologne in a well-contested bout in which three of the five judges scored in her favour.

Of the five judges, judge one from Argentina scored the bout 29-28 in the German's favour but for judges 2, 3 and 4, Lovlina was the winner as they scored it 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 in the Indian's favour. The fifth judge from Sri Lanka gave it to Nadine 30-27.

Lovlina will next take on Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinal on Friday.

It was a close encounter and Lovlina was in good rhythm from the start and launched some good combinations. She was aggressive and did not allow Nadine to land scoring punches. The first round went 48-47 in her favour as three of the five judges gave her 10 points.

Lovlina continued in the same vein in the second round, launching good combinations and defending well as the German came out on the counter. She again got 10 points each from three judges while two awarded her nine points apiece. Lovlina won this round 48-47 as Nadine managed to get 10 points from only two judges.

The third round went in the German's favour by one point as three judges thought she was the better boxer in this round. But the difference was not big enough to undo the good work she had done in the first two rounds. IANS

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