Olympic boxing: Lovlina Borgohain reaches semifinal, assured of medal

Bringing much-needed joy to Indian sports fans, boxer Lovlina Borgohain has advanced to the semifinals of the women's welterweight (64kg-69kg) competition at the Tokyo Olympics.

On Friday, Borgohain defeated Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinal. Chen is a former world champion. Borgohain's achievement assures her of at least a bronze medal. This will make her the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal after Vijender Singh and Mary Kom.

Borgohain had lost to Chen in the 2018 world championship semifinal in a 1-4 verdict.

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 Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout. Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist, 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.

Borgohain's win comes a day after boxing fans were heartbroken following the loss of veteran Mary Kom in a contested pre-quarterfinal bout against Colombian Ingrit Valencia.

The Tokyo Olympics is Lovlina Borgohain's first Olympic appearance. On Tuesday, Borgohain had defeated German veteran Nadine Apetz to reach the quarterfinal.