Linh wins her first boxing match at Paris Olympics

Hà Thị Linh of Việt Nam (right) lands a punch on Feofaaki Epenisa from Tonga during the Paris Olympics’ women’s 60kg first round match on July 27. Photo doisongphapluat.com.vn

PARIS—Hà Thị Linh advanced to the second qualification round of the women’s boxing U60kg category after a decisive win over Feofaaki Epenisa from Tonga late July 27 at the Paris Olympics. 

Linh, 31, came to the French event after earning an official ticket, while Epenisa, 28, received a wildcard.

Epenisa was agile and fast to open attacks in the first 30 seconds but Linh’s longer arm span and height advantage helped her quickly catch up with Epenisa’s pace and style to fight back.

The Vietnamese SEA Games champion gave her rival some heavy face shots and set her domination in the first round.

Linh maintained her power in the remainder of the rounds, delivering jabs and hooks over the Tongan and wrapped up the game with a 5-0 victory.

In the next round, she will face Chinese Yang Wenlu on July 29.

It will be a second meeting of the two within the past year, Linh was defeated 0-5 in their 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou last September. Number one seed Yang, 33, will be a troubling contest for Linh.

The 1.73m boxer won the Asian championship golds in 2015 and 2019. She became a world champion in 2016 and won the Asian Games in 2019. Last year, she secured a world championship bronze. 

In a later match, Việt Nam’s second boxer, Võ Thị Kim Ánh, however, was ousted from her first Olympics, losing 0-5 to young, talented Preeti Pawar of India in the women’s 54kg. 

Ánh was the better fighter in the first round, which saw her pushing Pawar to the corners of the ring with her punches.

However, Pawar, a former Youth Olympics champion, showed some strong tactics with flexible moves and forceful punches in the next rounds and impressed the judges to take maximum points.

After the first day of competition, Australia topped the ranking table with three golds, followed by China and the US.

Athletes from ten delegations have won golds and a total of 20 delegations won medals on July 27. VNS