Indian boxer Pooja Rani is close to winning an olympic medal for India as she battles Li Qian of China in the quarter-finals today.
Li Qian is an Olympic bronze-medallist, two-time Asian champion, and former world gold-medallist.
Rani (75kg) out-punched Algeria’s Ichrak Chaib in her opening bout to enter the quarter finals of her maiden Olympic Games on Wednesday. The 30-year-old Indian clinched it 5-0, thoroughly dominating a rival 10 years her junior.
The boxer from Bhiwani, Haryana, is in the middle of one of her best years in the sport, having won the Asian Boxing Championship gold in May and a victory over world champion Atheyna Bylon in March this year at the Boxam International Tournament where she won silver.
India is pinning her medal hopes on Rani. Watch her take on the Chinese boxer @ 3.30PM on Saturday.