Lovlina Borgohain assures India of first boxing medal at Tokyo Olympics
Tokyo, Jul 30: Debutant Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) assured India of their first boxing medal at the ongoing Olympic Games when she upstaged former world champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei to enter the semifinals here on Friday.
The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four where she will square off against reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, who hammered Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout.
Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist, displayed tremendous calm in the face of a plucky opponent, who had beaten her in the past.
She was aggressive to start with, followed it up with a tremendous counter-attacking game and kept her defence tight in the final three minutes to emerge triumphant.
The youngster, who was laid low by COVID-19 last year and missed a training trip to Europe because of it, let out a huge scream after the referee raised her hand, pent up emotions finally getting the better of her.
India's previous boxing medals have come through Vijender Singh (2008) and M C Mary Kom (2012). Both of them had won bronze medals and Borgohain would look to better that.
Earlier, Simranjit Kaur (60kg) lost to Thailand's Sudaporn Seesondee in the pre-quarterfinals to make an early exit from the Games here.
The 26-year-old Indian, seeded fourth, went down 0-5 despite a gritty performance.
She was impressive in the opening round and seemed to have caught Seesondee on the back-foot with her measured approach, sticking to a counter-attacking strategy.
However, the judges ruled unanimously in favour of the Thai, causing Simranjit to be a tad reckless in the second round.
The Indian paid for the hyper-aggressive approach in the first few seconds itself when Seesondee managed to connect some eye-catching left hooks.
The defensive errors in the second put paid to Simranjit's chances and even though she gave it her all in the third round, it needed nothing short of a demolition job to get over the line.
However, that was not to be as she bowed out following a unanimous verdict.
The 29-year-old Thai is a two-time world championships medallist and also won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games.
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Domestic help held for stealing employer's silver worth Rs 35 lakh in Bengaluru
Bengaluru (PTI): A domestic worker has been arrested for allegedly stealing 12.5 kg of silver articles worth around Rs 35 lakh from the house of her employer here, police said on Friday.
Chaitra has been arrested by the Jeevan Bima Nagar Police Station.
She had been working for the past two-and-a-half years at the residence of a surgeon attached to a reputed hospital in the city, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh told reporters.
According to him, the woman is a native of Davangere and allegedly stole silver utensils and Pooja articles from the house in phases.
“The family had stored about 12.5 kg of silver utensils on the upper floor, which were meant to be used only during festivals."
“She allegedly took one item at a time, pledged it to raise money and spent the amount. To avoid suspicion, she continued to work in the same house,” they added.
A few days before Deepavali, the accused reportedly quit her job.
“When the family opened the bag containing the silver utensils as part of festival preparations, they found the items missing and approached the police,” the Commissioner said.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered and an investigation was launched.
“We questioned former employees and during Chaitra’s interrogation, the theft came to light. We have recovered 12.5 kg of silver articles worth approximately Rs 35 lakh from her possession,” he stated.
A case has been registered and further investigation is in progress.
According to police sources, she cited the need for money for her husband’s cancer treatment, police sources said.
