Boxing-Bujold loses opening bout in Tokyo but leaves a mark

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Boxing – Girls’s Flyweight – Final 32 – Kokugikan Area – Tokyo, Japan – July 25, 2021. Mandy Bujold of Canada in motion towards Nina Radovanovic of Serbia Pool by way of REUTERS/Luis Robayo

TOKYO, July 25 (Reuters) – Mandy Bujold received a prolonged combat exterior the ring to punch her ticket to the Tokyo Olympics however the Canadian flyweight finally ran out of steam on Sunday, taking place to Serbian Nina Radovanovic within the opening spherical.

Bujold was among the many high flyweights on the earth earlier than taking maternity go away in 2018 however after qualifying occasions have been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was left with no different possibility however to hunt authorized assist.

An Worldwide Olympic Committee boxing activity drive determined to make use of outcomes from three tournaments over an 11-month interval between 2018 and 2019 to find out Tokyo boxing berths, throughout which period Bujold was not competing.

Bujold took an attraction towards the governing physique to the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport, which dominated that qualification standards should accommodate girls who have been pregnant or had simply given delivery.

“I do not need to make any excuses,” she stated on Sunday. “I continued to coach all through. My focus had numerous ups and downs. There have been instances I’d begin my exercise and I used to be in tears due to one thing that had simply occurred.

“It was a giant roller-coaster.”

The absence of a crowd on the Kokugikan Area, which hosts sumo wrestling, didn’t assist Bujold towards Radovanovic, who received in a unanimous choice on factors.

“There have been clearly quite a lot of challenges alongside the way in which to get right here, and there was a really completely different environment now,” stated the 34-year-old, who made the signal of a coronary heart together with her arms in the direction of the digital camera for her daughter.

“Even strolling out, it form of felt it was extra like a membership present as in comparison with the Olympics with no followers or something to get your vitality. I used to be looking for that internally, making an attempt to pump myself up and it is troublesome.”

Bujold, whose daughter has by no means seen her field, plans to write down a tell-all guide about her combat towards the IOC and was glad to have made a distinction for future girls boxers.

“I am proud that I am a two-time Olympian,” she stated. “I nonetheless made it right here and the battle to get right here is usually more durable than the battle fought within the ring.

“There are quite a lot of girls on this Olympics which might be moms and loads of them are on the high of their sport and that is OK, it is good to point out what they proceed to do despite the fact that they’ve a household. I believe we’re setting the stage for the following era to come back.”

Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Modifying by Karishma Singh

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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