Tokyo Olympics: Indian Boxer Lovlina Borgohain Wins Bronze In Women's Welterweight

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Lovlina Borgohain of India lost to Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey in the 69kg category on Wednesday, failing to change the colour of her medal.The Turkish boxer won by unanimous decision, 5-0.

The Turkish boxer, who used to compete at middleweight but moved down to welterweight in 2019, delivered an absolutely ruthless performance.

Lovlina Borgohain started off fantastically well in the first round, throwing scoring punches with a calculated approach. In fact, the 23-year-old Indian dominated the first round only to relinquish control in the final 30 seconds when Surmeneli landed a flurry of punches. Lovlina was also given a warning for punching her opponent after the referee had paused the fight. The judges certainly saw the last 30 seconds and awarded the round to the Turkish top seed.

Surmeneli won the second round with a deducted point and a unanimous decision.

The Indian boxer kept going in the final round and even connected with a jab, but Busenaz gave it back and landed another couple of left hooks to secure the third round as well.

Busenaz Surmeneli has dominated the welterweight division for the past few years. Aside from the world championship, she has won five medals, one of which is a gold medal, and four of those five medals are gold.

Lovlina Borgohain won bronze, following in the footsteps of Mary Kom and Vijender Singh to join the Indian boxing elite.

Lovlina is a shy youngster raised in Assam's Golaghat district's Baro Mukhia village, which is home to the world-famous Kaziranga National Park.

For one thing, she has elder sisters who are kickboxers, Licha and Lima, as well as parents who, despite their limited financial resources, were extremely supportive of their children's sporting ambitions.