B. Surmeneli, The 23-year-old Turkish boxer is the favourite in Tokyo after he became unbeatable after moving down in weight.
Lovlina Borgohain, of India, is in a prime position to make history by being the first Indian boxer to compete in an Olympic final.
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B. Surmeneli Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
B. Surmeneli secured a medal and a spot in the welterweight semi-finals by defeating former world champion Chen Nien-Chin in the quarter-finals.
Lovlina will enter the semi-finals feeling confident after defeating two highly ranked fighters on her way there, but she will have her hardest test to date when she faces reigning world champion and current World No. 1 B. Surmeneli.
Surmeneli’s Results at Tokyo 2020
| Round | Opponent | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Round of 16 | Karolina Koszewska (Poland) | 5-0 (Won on points) |
| Quarter-final | Anna Lysenko (Ukraine) | 5-0 (Won on points) |
Like Lovlina, 23-year-old B. Surmeneli is competing in her first Olympics, but she had an excellent reputation going into the competition.
Formerly a middleweight, the Turkish boxer made the move down to welterweight in 2019 and won the world title the very same year. B. Surmeneli has won a total of five medals in her new weight class, including one from the global championships. Four of those medals are gold.
B. Surmeneli has been Unbeatable in this Weight Class
as evidenced by her 4-0 finals victory over Yang Liu of China at the 2019 global championships. After a 3-2 victory over Lovlina in the semi-finals, Liu was able to go to the gold medal game.
B. Surmeneli, who is 23 years old, faced Anna Lysenko, a Ukrainian athlete, in the quarterfinals of the women’s 69 kilogramme class at Kokugikan Arena.
B. Surmeneli also made headlines for being the first Turkish athlete to achieve an Olympic medal in women’s boxing.
On August 4th, She will Play in a Semifinal Match.
In January of this year, B. Surmeneli revealed to Anadolu Agency that she has had an Olympic medal aspiration ever since she was a little girl.
Despite her long list of boxing accolades, she acknowledged that winning a medal in Tokyo would be a major accomplishment.
“I’ve always wanted to compete in the Olympics. I haven’t given up on my hope, “This is what she had said at the time.
Games were supposed to take place in 2020 but were cancelled along with many other international competitions due to the spread of the coronavirus.
For reasons of public health, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are being hosted from July 23rd to August 8th with no international spectators allowed.
Surmeneli’s Career Achievements
| Competition | Medal |
|---|---|
| 2019 AIBA World C’ship | Gold |
| 2019 European Boxing C’ship | Bronze |
| 2019 Grand Prix Usti | Gold |
| 2020 Bocksai Memorial | Gold |
| 2021 Bocksai memorial | Gold |
It wasn’t easy for Surmeneli to train for the Olympics while also taking care of her sick mother, who was affected by Covid-19. Her training had to be put on hold during that time, but it doesn’t appear to have hurt her performance in the least.
She won both of her bouts at Tokyo by 5-0 unanimous decisions and gold at the Bocksai memorial in 2020 and 2021.
Final Words
The boxer Surmeneli is quite a bully who relishes the opportunity to pummelled her opponents into submission. Lovlina will need to rely on her agility to neutralise the threat posed by the Turkish boxer.
