Sena Irie became the first female Japanese boxer to win the Olympic gold for her country


Sena Irie became the first female Japanese boxer to win the Olympic gold for her country

Sena Irie

Sena Irie became Japan’s first female boxer to claim a gold medal at the Olympics, she is only 20 years old and she became the featherweight champion. The self-proclaimed “unathletic” boxer provided a major upset in the finals to achieve her lifelong dream at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

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The Japanese boxer believes she is not a natural athlete, and she wanted to prove that with enough hard work anyone can achieve whatever they want, “I’m really not good at sports, so I feel like I could kind of show kids who also aren’t athletic that they can accomplish something if they don’t give up,” she told reporters after.

In the preliminary round of 32, she faced and defeated SOLORZANO Yamileth of El Salvador through a unanimous decision to advance to the next round, after five rounds every judge scored every round in her favor.

In the preliminary round of 16, she faced and defeated HLIMI EP MOULAHI Khouloud of Tunisia via unanimous decision, Sena Irie dominated her throughout five rounds and won every round against her.

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In the quarter-finals, she defeated NECHITA Maria Claudia of Romania with a split decision, it was a close fight but Sena Irie managed to get three out of five rounds to advance in the semi-finals.

Her semi-final bout was against ARTINGSTALL Karriss of Great Britain, it was a close fight as well but Irie stole three rounds from her opponent to get the split decision victory. The gold medal bout was between Sena Irie vs PETECIO Nesthy of the Philippines, and Irie came out victorious via a one-sided unanimous decision to become the Olympic champion.

PETECIO Nesthy of Philippines came up short in the finals against Sena Irie of Japan and got the silver medal

PETECIO Nesthy
PETECIO Nesthy

PETECIO Nesthy of the Philippines was one of the top contenders for the gold medal this time, and her run to the finals was pretty amazing, she defeated 4 opponents to get into the finals, but Sena Irie of Japan dominated her for five rounds and she had to settle with silver.

ARTINGSTALL Karriss of Great Britain and TESTA Irma of Italy secured the bronze medals

ARTINGSTALL Karriss
ARTINGSTALL Karriss

Karriss Artingstall of Great Britain won three fights before facing the gold medalist Sena Irie in the semi-finals, she gave a tough competition to the gold medalist but lost two rounds and Sena won the fight via split decision, and Karriss had to settle with a bronze medal.

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TESTA Irma
TESTA Irma

Irma Testa of Italy also won three-fight before facing the silver medalist PETECIO Nesthy of the Philippines in the semi-finals, it was a one-sided contest and Nesthy won four out of five rounds to get the victory and Irma had to settle with a bronze medal.

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