Paris 2024: Lovlina’s loss ends India’s disappointing campaign
The Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist lost to China’s Li Qian, the top seed in the 75kg category, in a split 4-1 verdict on Sunday.
Paris: Lovlina Borgohain walked into the ring for her women’s 75kg quarter-final bout with a smile on her face. At the end of it, despite what came up on the scorecard, she continued to smile. For the Indian boxing contingent at the Paris Olympics, however, there has been little to smile about.
Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina lost to China’s Li Qian, the top seed in the weight category, in a split 4-1 verdict on Sunday. From being the lone medallist in boxing at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, her exit stamped India’s medal-less campaign in the sport.
It was a close bout, as Lovlina acknowledged, but one that she didn’t turn up expecting to lose despite the Chinese being a two-time Olympic medallist and the Tokyo silver medallist. The Indian showed some fight across the three rounds, but Qian did just enough to impress the judges with her one-two combinations and effective jabs.
“It was a close bout. We have to accept it, and work harder,” Dmitry Dmitruk, India’s foreign coach, said.
Expectations ran high especially from India’s female boxers, led by two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen and Tokyo medallist Lovlina who had moved up in her weight category in this Olympic cycle. The boxers spent a good part of the Olympics buildup camping in Saarbrucken in Germany, sparring with boxers around the world.
“The preparation was really good. We sparred with a lot of boxers. But at some level, there were some shortcomings in us because of which we couldn’t do what we wanted to do here,” Lovlina said.
Attention on individual Worlds medallists aside, Indian boxing wasn’t in the best of shape coming into this Olympics. The failure of the male boxers, especially, to secure any quota before the final Olympic qualifiers, was glaring. And it led to the resignation of Bernard Dunne, the high-performance director, just months to go for the Games.
Nishant Dev, India’s lone male boxer that was around in Paris after Amit Panghal’s early ouster, also went down in a split decision in his 71kg quarter-final to Mexico’s Marco Verde on Saturday night. Nishant kicked a couple of chairs around the coaches’ area, visibly unhappy about the verdict. The youngster’s frustration, however, only summed up Indian boxing’s trip to Paris.
“Disappointed for the entire team, all of them,” Dmitruk said. “They were close fights, split decisions. But the preparation was good. The team, I believe, was ready. We did whatever we could.”