Borgohain outwitted in QF; India’s boxing campaign ends

PARIS:India’s boxing campaign at the Olympics came to a medal-less end after Tokyo edition bronze-winner Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) bowed out following a hard-fought quarterfinal loss to China’s Li Qian in the women’s competition here on Sunday.

Borgohain, the reigning world champion in the category, went down 1-4 to the Tokyo Games silver-winning 34-year-old in a messy contest during which both the boxers were repeatedly cautioned for clinching and holding.

The 26-year-old's loss ended India’s boxing campaign in the Olympics after Nishant Dev was ousted from the men’s 71kg quarterfinals on Saturday night, also a close contest.

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

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.

The holding and clinching started pretty early in the bout and the referee had to repeatedly step in to separate the two old foes.

Qian seemed determined while Borgohain came across the more animated of the two early on.

The Chinese 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.

Won’t retire until I get Olympic medal: Deepika

She has flattered to deceive for four straight Olympics but multiple World Cup medal winning archer Deepika Kumari has vowed not to quit unless she ends up on podium which she feels could be Los Angeles in four years’ time.

For Deepika, it has always been a case of not being able to display enough temperament in pressure situation at the grandest stage.

“Obviously, I want to play more in the future and will continue my game,” Deepika said at the India House here.

“I really want to win an Olympic medal, and I won’t quit until I achieve that. I’ll train harder and come back strongly,” added Deepika, who has won every international medal except for an Olympic yellow metal.

“Firstly, I will present myself more strongly. There are many things, like quick shooting, that I need to learn a bit more about, and it’s very important to train myself accordingly.

“What I learned from the Olympics is that late shooting doesn’t work; you have no room to make big mistakes, so you have to control that. I will learn that from here,” she said in hindsight.