Lovlina Borgohain, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist in the now-defunct 69kg category, brought back the smiles for Indian boxing fans by storming into the women’s 75kg category quarterfinals, after registering a comfortable 5-0 unanimous decision victory over Norway’s Sunniva Hofstad.

Lovlina’s win on Wednesday came after three of her teammates — Amit Panghal (51 kg), Jaismine Lamboriya (57 kg) and Preeti Pawar (54 kg) — crashed out of the Paris Olympics, after losing their respective bouts.

The eight-seeded Lovlina, who had a lower back issue during the pre-Olympics camp in Saarbrucken, showed no signs of discomfort as she smilingly jogged her way to the blue corner and looked eager to get on with her first fight.

With experience on her side, the Indian launched attacks to take early advantage that put the pressure on the Norwegian, seven years younger than her. Sunniva, the 2022 World Youth Champion, tried to land some counters to tackle the lanky Indian, before Lovlina responded with a couple of jabs and a right hook to collect the much-needed points in the first round.

The second round saw Lovlina make an effective use of her precise left jab as she began with a flurry of strong jabs to leave her opponent fending for cover. The Norwegian struggled to get anything going as Lovlina landed a few clean ramming swipes at Hofstad and toyed with her frustration to get the better of her throughout the round.

Desperate to get the momentum on her side in the final round, Hofstad began by charging on Lovlina who instead took down her opponent before the referee reprimanded the Indian pugilist. With over a minute to go for the third round, Lovlina found her balance after being attacked on the head, and came up with a flurry of jabs to end the round in dominant fashion.

In the last eight stages, the lanky Assamese pugilist will be up against her old nemesis and number one seed China’s Li Qian on Sunday. Both these boxers met in two major events last year – the Asian Games final and World Championships semi-final.

Li Qian, a two-time Olympic medallist, won the Asian Games final in Hangzhou and most recently at the Grand Prix in Czechia in mid-June while Borgohain emerged on top in the World Championships semi-finals in New Delhi. Thus the balance isn’t totally one-sided.

If Lovlina manages to get past Qian, she could face either fifth-seeded Caitlin Parker, who she had beaten for the World Championship title or three-time Worlds medallist and fourth-seeded Khadija El-Mardi of Morocco in the semifinal. She could then face either Worlds bronze medallist Davina Michel or European champion Aoife O’Rourke in the final.

Only two other Indian boxers remain in contention for a medal at Paris 2024.

Later in the day, Nishant Dev (71 kg) will make his Olympics debut in a round of 16 clash against Ecuador’s Jose Rodriguez after receiving a bye in the first round. This technically means, Nishant will need to win only a couple of bouts to assure himself at least a bronze. A win could land him against Pan American champion Marco Verde in the quarterfinal. Nishant had beaten the Mexican when they last fought in Belgrade in 2021.

Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen will face reigning world champion Wu Yu of China in the women’s 50kg round of 16 on Thursday.