Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of the Women’s Welterweight Boxing semifinal between Lovlina Borgohain and Busenaz Surmeneli.

A coach who trained Lovlina Borgohain during her early days in boxing and another who has been by her side in recent times are delighted with Lovlina’s medal-winning performance. Read more – HERE

Lovlina’s opponent today Surmeneli, also 23, is the top seed in the welterweight (64-69 kg) category at the 2020 Summer Games.

Coached by former Olympian Cahit Sume, Surmeneli won the 2019 World Championship in Ulan-Ude, Russia, where she beat Yang Liu of China 4-0 in the finals. Lovlina won the bronze medal in the competition. Here’s all you need to know about Lovlina’s opponent – READ

Olympic specials: Sarita Devi talks Lovlina, Mirabai and north-east

 

– BOUT  PREVIEW –

Lovlina Borgohain will face world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey in a women’s 69kg semifinal on Wednesday in her bid to become the first Indian boxer to reach an Olympics title clash.

Two inches taller than Busenaz, Lovlina will be eager to create another upset, having bested Worlds medallist German Nadine Apetz and former World champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei earlier to assure India of another medal in the Games.

Surmeneli got the better of Polish Karolina Koszewska and Ukrainian Ana Lysenko to be among the last four.

The two 23-year-old boxers have never met before. While two-time Worlds bronze medallist Lovlina has 14 wins and nine losses in her career, Busenaz has a far superior record of 25 wins and six defeats.

Lovlina Borgohain’s medal-winning effort in Tokyo, a ringside view 

“I have a few days. I will see her videos and figure out what to do with her,” said Lovlina, who approached her match against Chen without any strategy and tasted success after winning her quarterfinal bout.

If Lovlina beats Busenaz, she will ensure a medal of better colour than Vijender Singh and M.C. Mary Kom’s bronze medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, respectively.