India’s boxing campaign ends in Paris Olympics as Lovlina Borgohain outwitted in quarterfinal

Paris Olympics 2024: India's boxer Lovlina Borgohain was outwitted in a hard-fought quarterfinal match with China's Li Qian in Paris on Sunday.

With Borgohain losing out in quarterfinal, India’s boxing campaign also ended without any medal at the ongoing Paris Olympics.

Borgohain, the reigning world champion in the 75kg category and Tokyo Olympics bronze medal winner, went down 1-4 to the 34-year-old Tokyo Games silver-winner in a messy contest.

During the boxing match, both the boxers were repeatedly cautioned for clinching and holding.

It was a pacey start to the proceedings as Borgohain and Qian quickly got into a tangle.

However, none of the boxers seemed willing to launch the first attack.

Qian connected some clean combination punches and a left hook towards the end of the first round.

She was particularly impressive before she took a 3-2 lead in the contest.

In the second round, Qian was more purposeful in her approach. Her right straights were on target while Borgohain was cautioned twice for excessive holding.

It was once again 3-2 in favour of Qian but with a different set of judges scoring in her favour this time, she only had a slender one-point lead on one card, while the remaining four were tied.

Borgohain was not up to it when it came to controlling the pace of the bout and repeatedly took hits on counter-attacks.

The 26-year-old Assamese had fought Qian in the Asian Games final 2023 and gone down 0-5. She later beat Qian in the world championship semi-final last year.

On Saturday, India's Nishant Dev was ousted from the men's 71kg quarterfinals, also a close contest.

A six-strong boxing contingent, comprising four women and two men, was representing the country in the Paris Olympics Games. Out of these, four had crashed out in the preliminary stage itself.