Canada's Tammara Thibeault falls 1 win shy of medal in women's middleweight boxing
Montreal native loses to Netherlands' Nouchka Fontijn in quarter-finals
Canadian boxer Tammara Thibeault fell one win shy of winning a medal with her loss to the Netherlands' Nouchka Fontijn in the women's middleweight (69-75 kg) quarter-finals on Saturday in Tokyo.
Winners of the semifinal round go on to fight for the gold medal, but losers of that round each get bronze medals.
The Montreal native lost on points, with the total scores from all five judges being in favour of Fontijn, who won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The 24-year-old Thibeault came out in the first round as the aggressor, landing some solid punches and keeping Fontijn on the defensive. Thibeault was scored as winning the round 10-9 by four of the five judges.
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Much of the second round went similarly to the first until the final 35 seconds when Fontijn found a rhythm, consistently landing shots and taking control, leading her to win the second round 10-9 across the scorecards of all five judges.
In the third and final round, it did not get much, if any better for Thibeault, as Fontijn continued to get stronger as the fight went on and closed out the victory, advancing to the semifinals.
"I think that her experience took over towards the end," Thibeault said. "I thought I had it — I guess I didn't. But that's okay because I'll just come back stronger next time."
"I'm very young, I still got tons ahead of me, so just making it this far right now is a huge accomplishment."
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