Tokyo: After Lovlina Borgohain on Tuesday, her compatriot Pooja Rani (75kg) inched closer to a Tokyo Olympics medal on Wednesday when she defeated Ichrak Chaib of Algeria 5-0 by a unanimous decision to sail into the quarterfinals.
Fighting in red, Pooja was dominant from the first round with some lusty blows on her Algerian opponent. Although Chaib put up some resistance it wasn’t enough for the Algerian in front of the recently-crowned Asian champion.
With this win, Pooja became the third Indian female boxer to win first-round matches at the Tokyo Olympics. Earlier, Lovlina has entered into the women’s 69kg quarterfinals while Mary Kom (51kg) will be in action on Thursday for a place in the last eight.
In the quarterfinals, Pooja will either face Aoife O’Rourke of Ireland or Chinese Qian Li and is expected to make it to the semifinals.
