Olympics 2024 Boxing: Indian Boxers Draw a Blank After Lovlina Borgohain Goes Down Fighting in Quarter-Final

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Indian boxers drew a blank in Paris Olympics 2024 after the last medal hope Lovlina Borgohain went down fighting in the quarter-final of the women's 75kg quarter-final against China's Li Qian on Sunday (August 4).

Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Borgohain was one win away from assuring herself of a second successive medal, but the Indian boxer suffered a close spilt decision 1-4 (28-29, 29-29, 29-28, 28-29, 27-30) loss to the top seed from China.

Three judges scored the first two rounds in the Chinese boxer's favour before the final round saw four judges scoring in favour of Li Qian, who sealed her third successive medal in Olympics, but will hope to finish with a different color this time after a bronze and silve in the previous two editions.

Borgohain, the reigning world champion in the category, had earlier defeated Norway's Sunniva Hofstad in the round of 16 to reach the quarterfinals. The Indian claimed a unanimous 5-0 win in her Paris Olympics opener, but fell to one of her nemesis Li Qian, who also beat Borgohain to win the Asian Games gold.

The Assamese had fought Qian in the Asian Games final last year and gone down 0-5. She later beat Qian in the semifinals of the world championship semifinal in 2023. But more recently, she was bested by the veteran in a pre-Olympic tournament in Czechia in June.

With Borgohain's defeat, India will return home from Paris without a medal in boxing as Nishant Dev also lost a close quarter-final in the men's 71kg quarter-final on Saturday (August 3).

Nishant dominated the first round against Mexico's Marco Verde. But the Mexican boxer made ground and eventually scripted a comeback to ensure a medal for his country.

Earlier, Nikhat Zareen, another medal hope, bowed out in the round of 16, while Jaismine Lamboria, Preeti Pawar and Amit Panghal also suffered early exits in their respective weight categories.