Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain, on Friday, assured herself of a medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic with a victory over her former world champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei. She has now entered the semifinals of the women’s welterweight in the 69kg category.

The 23-year-old, making an Olympic debut, registered a 4-1 victory, giving India a huge reason to celebrate. 

“I can’t say thank you now. I will say it to everyone after finals,” news agency ANI quoted her as saying.

As she prepares to face world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey in the semifinal, she says that she is preparing for the bout and has her eye set on the elusive gold.

“There is only one medal, it is gold. And I will aim for it. Right now, I’m preparing for the semi-finals,” the Indian boxer said.

Lovlina is a two-time world championship bronze medallist and the first female boxer from Assam to qualify for the Summer Games.

She produced a calculated effort and remained calm in front of an opponent who had beaten her in past meetings.

“I follow the footwork & long punch of boxer Muhammad Ali…After I stepped into boxing, I have only heard Mary Kom’s name. It feels really good that she is here with us in the games. She has struggled a lot and I take inspiration from her,” she said.

“Pressure is always there. But, this time, I tried not to play under pressure as it impacts the performance. I knew the whole country was praying for me. I just had to give my best performance,” the boxer added.

As she recorded her victory, her village in Assam, too, joined in and celebrated the feat.

Her semifinal bout is scheduled for August 4. Talking about her performance, national coach Mohammed Ali Qamar said: “She stuck to the plan of counter-attacking and taking advantage of her height. She had tried being aggressive with this girl in the previous bout and lost. So this time, we told her ‘aap khade raho, usko aane do’.”