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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West Asia conflict: Kerala postpones SSLC, Higher Secondary exams in Gulf region
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Monday announced the postponement of the SSLC and Higher Secondary examinations scheduled for this week in the Gulf region, in view of the escalating tensions in West Asia.
Addressing a press conference here, the minister said the security situation in the gulf, has made conducting the public exams impossible.
Against this backdrop, the government has decided to postpone the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination scheduled for March 5 in the Gulf region, he said.
The Higher Secondary examinations slated for March 5, 6 and 7 in the region have also been deferred, Sivankutty added.
"The revised dates for the postponed examinations will be announced later," the Minister said.
He noted that some students, both in the Gulf countries and in Kerala, are anxious that they may not be able to reach their examination centres and could miss their exams due to the prevailing situation.
The General Education Department stands with the students in this matter, Sivankutty said.
Students who are unable to appear for the examinations are advised to submit applications at the earliest to the Director of General Education through their respective headmasters or principals, he said.
The department will examine the merit of each application and take a favourable decision in the interest of the students, the Minister added.
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