India at Tokyo Olympics: Pooja Rani progresses into Quarter Finals with a win

28 July 2021

Indian Boxer Pooja Rani progressed into the quarter-finals of the Women's Middleweight Category at the Tokyo Olympics after securing a win over Ichrak Chaib of Algeria today. 

Pooja started off on an aggressive note against the Algerian youngster who was having trouble early in the first round itself. Although Ichrak gained some composure as the round progressed, Pooja did enough to get a comfortable clean sweep on the judges' card. Ichrak came out swinging in the second round in an attempt to cover lost ground but the experience of Pooja proved to be the difference of the round. All five judges scored in favor of Pooja in the second round as well due to this. 

The Indian showed off some more dominance in the third round against a tiring Ichrak to comfortably enter the quarter-finals of the middleweight category with a decision victory. She is the second Indian boxer to enter the quarter-finals. 

Last day, Lovlina Borgohain had secured her spot in the quarter-finals by getting a split decision win over Nadine Apetz of Germany in the Welterweight category. Mary Kom had also progressed into the round of 16 in the Flyweight category by defeating Miguelina Hernandez of the Dominican Republic.

While Lovlina and Mary Kom progressed, the likes of Vikas Krishan, Manish Kaushik, and Ashish Kumar bowed out of the tournament after suffering defeats in their respective fights. Vikas, who was in action on Day 1 went down to SQM Okazawa of Japan in the Round of 32 when Manish lost to Luke McCormack of Great Britain.

Kom will now go up against Ingrit Valencia of Colombia in the Round of 16 on 29 July 2021 at 3:36 PM IST. Lovlina, meanwhile, will be going up against NC Chen of Chinese Taipei on Friday. Simranjit Kaur will be in action on Friday as well when she fights S Seesondee of Thailand in the Round of 16. Satish Kumar, who will be the first Indian boxer to compete at Super Heavyweight in the Olympics, will go up against Ricardo Brown of Jamaica in the Round of 16.

Top seed Amit Panghal will be in action on Saturday 31 July 2021 at 7:30 AM IST when he fights Yuberjen Martinez of Colombia in the round of 16.

What do you think of the medal chances of the Indian boxers? Let us know in the comment section of the article below.

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