London Olympics: Nigeria’s remaining boxing medal hope finally fizzles out
London, UK – Edith Ogoke, the last Team Nigeria boxer standing, finally bowed to superior skill Monday when she was outpointed 18-8 by World number two ranked amateur middleweight fighter, Nadezhda Torlopova of Russia, in their quarter final encounter at the London Olympic Games.
The Nigerian boxer came out ‘smoking’ in the first of their two-minute, four-round contest, matching the taller Russian punch for punch for a 3-3 scoreline at the end of that round.
But the Nigerian southpaw boxer slowed down considerably in the second round and made matters worse when she suffered a knockdown for a mandatory count of eight. She was barely able to score one point in that round while Torlopova recorded seven points.
Infuriated by the second-round knockdown, Ogoke came out for the third round swinging and hoping to land a knockout punch. But this eluded her because the Russian, with a longer reach, kept the Nigerian away while poking her points.
Score at the end of the third round was 4-2 in favour of the Russian..
In the fourth and final round, the Nigerian, sensing that she needed a knockout to win the fight, dazed the Russian over the one-minute mark but then it was too late for her to upstage the Russian who also won that round 4-2.
Ogoke’s loss completes Nigeria’s sad story in the boxing event where two other Nigerians — Lukmon Lawal (men’s Light heavyweight) and Muideen Akanji (men’s Middleweight) — lost in the preliminaries.
Pana 07/08/2012
Category: Sports
