Tokyo Olympics: After bronze, Lovlina Borgohain is boxing’s new golden girl | Tokyo Olympics News – Times of India

It was a completely different Lovlina Borgohain from the one India witnessed on July 30 – the day she won her quarterfinal bout against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Nienchin to book a bronze medal for herself and the country. In the 69kg semifinal, the 23-year-old from Assam was up against top seed and reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey.
Lovlina was a shadow of herself against Surmeneli and lost 0-5 at Tokyo’s Kokugikan arena on Wednesday. Surmeneli was the much-superior boxer on the day and the Indian was completely outpunched. Despite the loss, Lovlina, on the back of her bronze medalwinning performance, emulated Vijender Singh (bronze at 2008 Beijing Olympics) and Mary Kom (bronze at 2012 London Olympics) to become only the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal. Lovlina’s bronze is India’s first Olympic medal in boxing in nine years.

“I don’t know what to say. I could not execute what I had planned. I could have done better,” Lovlina said after her bout. “It has been a wonderful journey to the Tokyo Olympics and also at the Games. Finally, my years of preparations yielded me an Olympic medal. Although I was aiming for the gold medal, there is always a next time. I dedicate this to my country,” she added.
Lovlina began the bout on a cautious note, as she took some time to settle in. The circumspect start by the Indian gave Surmeneli enough chances to attack. And that she did, landing a couple of left hooks on Lovlina. Although Lovlina retaliated with uppercuts and rained body blows on the Turkish girl, her punches lacked force.

Surmeneli then went all out and was relentless with her punches, landing most of them on target. She gave the Indian no room to breathe. It was no surprise when the first round went unanimously to the world champion.
Surmeneli stormed out of the blocks in the second round and landed controlled punches on Lovlina. The Indian kept her guard open for much of the second round, which the Turkish girl took advantage of. All Lovlina managed were some body blows and a couple of left jabs towards the end of the round. She also faced penalty for landing a punch after being called to stop by the referee. As a result, a point was deducted. The judges unanimously went with Surmeneli.

In the third round, the flamboyant Turkish boxer didn’t just outpunch her rival, but also taunted Lovlina with some showboating, including dropping her guard to dare the Indian.