Lovlina Borgohain was ecstatic after her women's welterweight quarterfinal win assured her of a medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. "Bahut bada din hai. Par mujhe gold leke jaana hai. Medal toh zaroori tha. Ab main khul ke khel sakti hun (It's a very big day for me. But I want to win gold. We needed a medal. Now, I can play freely)," Lovlina said shortly after beating World No. 2 Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei 4-1.
Borgohain is the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal, after Vijender Singh (men's middleweight bronze, Beijing 2008) and Mary Kom (women's flyweight bronze, London 2012). Borgohain had faced Chen Nien-chin thrice before and lost on all three occasions.
Asked what her strategy was going into today's bout, she said: "I had lost four times to her. I used to plan a lot before getting into a bout with her... I know her game, so this time, I was attacking from the get-go. My game is to counter but today I changed my tactic."
"There was no strategy per se because if we go in with a plan, then the opponent can catch you off-guard. The plan was to play on the merit of the opponent. I backed myself to handle any situation. I have been working hard for the last eight years. Wanted to channel all that effort in the ring today."
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