Tokyo, July 27: Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain on Tuesday (July 27) defeated Nadine Apetz of Germany in the Round of 16 clash to enter the quarter-finals of the women's welterweight (69-75kg) category in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
On her debut bout in the Olympics, Borgohain defeated Apetz 3-2 at the Kokugikan Arena. In fact, both the boxers were making their Games debut and the Indian became the first from her nine-strong team to make the quarterfinal stage.
The 23-year-old showed great poise in a close contest to triumph by the thinnest of margins and claimed all the three rounds on split points. The Indian pugilist, who is one win away from a medal, will next face Chinese Taipei's Chen Nien-chin in the last 8 clash on Friday (July 30).
Lovlina, who is a two-time World and Asian championships bronze-medallist, showed aggression and took Round 1, 3-2 to put pressure on her German opponent.
In Round 2, Lovlina played a waiting game to start and then continued to charge and unleashed further punches, throwing Apetz off her guard.
The 23-year-old Indian did not hold back in the third and final round as well to eventually win the match via split decision to reach the Tokyo Olympics quarterfinals.
Earlier on Sunday (July 25), veteran Mary Kom advanced to the Round of 16 in women's flyweight (48-51 kg) category after defeating Miguelina Garcia of the Dominican Republic in the round of 32. Mary Kom defeated Miguelina 4-1.
However, three other Indian boxers made first round exits. Vikas Krishnan lost in the men's welterweight boxing event, while Manish Kaushik and Ashish Kumar lost in the lightweight and middleweight round of 32 bouts respectively.
Meanwhile, four other Indian boxers - Amit Phangal, Pooja Rani, Satish Kumar and Simranjit Kaur are set to be in action in the coming days for bouts in their respecive category.