Olympics: How better stamina management helped China’s Li Qian beat India’s Lovlina Borgohain | Sport-others News

Lovlina Borgohain lost a close 4-1 decision to China’s multiple-Olympic medall Li Qian in the Women’s 75kg category to bring an end to her’s and India’s boxing programme at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Sunday. Earlier in the night, 71kg light-middleweight hopeful Nishant Dev too had lost his bout via split decision (4-1) to Mexico’s Marco Verde. They were the only two Indians to even make the quarterfinals, bringing the curtains down on a poor showing in Paris after nine boxers had qualified for Tokyo and one had brought a medal back.
When Borgohain made her way to the ring on Sunday, she was a picture of confidence. Both she and Li Qian have met twice last year and once this year – with the Indian winning in New Delhi, and the Chinese boxer winning in Hangzhou and crucially, taking a 2-3 split decision in the Czech Republic at the 2024 Grand Prix. Going results over the past year, Borgohain knew the gap was there to be closed.
At 34, it was clear the Chinese boxer would be conservative with her energy. And Qian was exactly that, not going for the kill early on. Borgohain too decided to keep things slow and not really push the pace. Where many Indian boxers went full throttle from the first round, Borgohain chose to be conservative and that might have been the difference on Sunday. Qian took the first the account of three judges – a late Lovlina flurry at the end of the first not deemed to have been good enough to win her the round.
The second round, one where the Indian needed to win, turned into some of Qian’s best work. The Chinese veteran started going for more than one punch at a time, and at the end of those combinations closing the dance and not allowing for the opponent to unfurl her arms. Even though the round was nowhere near as close, three judges for Qian and two for Lovlina was the tale of the second. In the third, Qian had managed her strength better while the Indian faded – four of the five judges gave it to the Chinese and brought an end to India’s boxing campaign. For Lovlina, the 75kg category has come with many challenges despite a World Championship gold at home with a reduced number of countries participating.
Late on Saturday night, Nishant Dev went down fighting to Mexico’s 2023 Pan American Games champion Marco Verde in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Dev took the first round, according to the judges but then lost rounds two and three, according to the scorecards, a result that has since led to an Indian public outcry over judging at the Paris Boxing programme, being carried out the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.
Dev’s confidence before the Olympics was palpable. The 23-year-old has publically said that it wasn’t a medal he was hunting for but to go all the way and become the first Indian boxer to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Both Dev and Verde had faced each other once before, at the 2021 World Championships – over there Dev narrowly took a 3-2 decision win.
Just like their previous fight, this one too started off close with both boxers landing some huge shots on each other – but it seemed Dev’s hits were landing cleaner. Towards the end of the first though, referee Emil Gurbanaliyev ordered a standing eight count for Dev. While this should have resulted in judges giving the round to the Mexican, the scorecards went 4-1 in favour of Dev. Verde, knowing he was behind, changed strategy in the second and chose to not give Dev any space.

Phonebooth boxing
No room for any hooks, no space to escape – Verde made it a fight in a phonebooth. It was smart from the Mexican’s corner knowing that allowing space would make the second round be scored similar to the first. Dev, who seemed to have overcome this change in direction of the fight and landed clearer shots, found that only two judges gave him the second. Spent from two furious rounds of boxing, the 23-year-old wasn’t able to generate power, nor was he able to escape Verde’s constant closing of dance in the third and the referees gave the Mexican the bout 4-1 and a first-ever bronze medal to boot.