Lovlina finishes with bronze, emulates Mary Kom and Vijender Singh to join Indian boxing elite
Mangalore Today News Network
New Delhi, Aug 04, 2021: India’s Lovlina Borgohain failed to change the colour of her medal as she lost to Busenaz Surmeneli, the world champion from Turkey, in the 69kg category on Wednesday.
The boxer from Turkey won by a unanimous decision 5-0.
It was an absolute ruthless performance from the Turkish boxer, who used to compete in the middleweight but dropped down to welterweight in 2019.
In the opening round, Lovlina Borgohain began wonderfully well, throwing scoring punches with a calculated approach. In fact, the 23-year-old Indian dominated the opening round only to lose the initiative in the last 30 seconds when Surmeneli came up with a flurry of punches. Lovlina got a warning as well for punching her opponent when the referee had paused the bout. The judges certainly saw the last 30 seconds and awarded the round to the Turkish top seed.In the second round, Lovlina got a deducted point, and another unanimous decision for Surmeneli.
Lovlina, you gave your best punch !🥊
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) August 4, 2021
India 🇮🇳 is extremely proud of what you have achieved !
You’ve achieved a 🥉 medal in your first Olympics; the journey has just begun!
Well done @LovlinaBorgohai !#Boxing #Olympics #Tokyo2020 #Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/kIW7qkeze5
In the final round, the Indian boxer kept on going and even connected a jab, but Busenaz, though, gave it back and landed another couple of left hooks to secure the third round as well.
Busenaz Surmeneli has been dominating in the welterweight category for the past couple of years. She has won five medals apart from the world championship, one and four out of those five medals have been gold.
Lovlina Borgohain finished with bronze, and emulated Mary Kom and Vijender Singh to join the Indian boxing elite.
Lovlina, reticent youngster, brought up in Baro Mukhia village of Assam’s Golaghat district, the home to the famous Kaziranga National Park.
For one, she had elder sisters -- Licha and Lima -- who are kick-boxers and parents who were immensely supportive of their children’s sporting ambitions despite limited means.
Her mother Mamoni underwent a kidney transplant last year. Borgohain visited her for a few days at that time and ended up testing positive for Covid-19 a day before she was to leave with the Olympic-qualified group for a 52-day training trip to Europe.
That exposure trip would have been crucial for her given that the pandemic had caused a shutdown all across and in India too, boxers were not allowed to spar for a while even after the camps reopened.
The fear was that the contact sport would end up causing infections among the practitioners.
It was deflating for the boxer but the government stepped in to assist Borgohain after she recovered from Covid-19, including a personalised training camp in Assam for her.
But away from her teammates, it was tough for the youngster to build up all by herself.
And it showed in the Asian Championships in June, where she lost in her very first bout although the small size of the draw ensured that she still ended up with a bronze medal.
Courtesy:India Today