TOKYO —
It was at all times going to be a tall order for Tammara Thibeault.
Whereas the Canadian boxer got here shut, she finally fell to the skilled Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands within the ladies’s middleweight quarterfinal on the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
Fontijn, the Olympic vice-champion in 2016 in Rio and three-time silver medallist on the world championships, ended the the 24-year-old’s Olympic dream by unanimous determination after an in depth combat.
Fontijn got here from behind after Thibeault received the primary spherical to to earn 4 scores of 29-28 and considered one of 30-27.
“My opponent is an individual with plenty of expertise, she has been combating at this degree for a very long time,” stated Thibeault of the Dutch boxer with a 116-20 document on the worldwide stage. “It was her expertise that took over.”
Thibeault, a silver medallist on the final Pan Am Video games and bronze medallist on the 2019 world championships and 2018 Commonwealth Video games, received off to a superb begin. Enjoying aggressive, she landed a number of punches and saved her opponent at bay, executing the sport plan established to problem the 33-year-old Dutch boxer.
“The plan was to field from a distance and pressure her to return (in direction of me),” Thibeault stated. “That is what I did within the first spherical, however I wasn’t in a position to maintain it till the tip.”
Fontijn began to show issues round within the subsequent spherical. She managed to defend Thibeault’s jabs and get nearer to her opponent, scoring massive factors with exact punches.
All of it got here all the way down to the third spherical. The boxer from Shawinigan, Que., was aggressive proper off the bat, touchdown a number of good photographs with none reply from Fontijn. However the Canadian was merely not in a position to preserve that tempo. Fontijn regularly gained the higher hand and managed to land higher photographs.
“There was much less distance between us within the second and third rounds,” stated Thibeault, her proper cheek swollen. “I additionally did not throw sufficient punches.”
“I’ve all of the instruments to make it by way of to the tip. Right this moment simply wasn’t my day. … I actually thought I may beat her. I didn’t come right here to make an look. I used to be right here to win.”
Thibeault’s coach, Daniel Trepanier, felt it was a really shut combat and believed the choice may have gone both means,
“We knew we had the primary spherical and Fontijn had the second,” he stated. “The third, that is the place it performed out. We thought Tammara nonetheless had an opportunity to win with the efficiency she gave within the final spherical.
“We anticipated Fontijn to complete robust. She did that in her first combat (in opposition to Poland’s Elzbieta Wojcik). She misplaced the primary spherical earlier than coming from behind to win. We had been satisfied that we had what it took to go for the victory.”
Fontijn will now face world No. 1 and Tokyo middleweight favourite, Britain’s Lauren Value, within the semifinal.
For Thibeault, who has by no means hidden that her objective was to step onto the rostrum in Tokyo, the event leaves a bitter style. She didn’t need to touch upon her future within the sport, although she claimed a number of weeks in the past that if she did not win gold in Tokyo, she would proceed combating till that objective was met.
“For now, I’ll take a break,” she stated on Saturday. “We have been on this Olympic cycle for 5 years and it is not the tip I needed. There may be nothing I can change now.”
Nonetheless, she confirmed that she could be boxing on the subsequent world championship in Kielce, Poland. The date of the occasion stays to be confirmed.
“I do not know when the Worlds are going to be, however I will be there,” stated the boxer with a 26-12 document.
Thibeault was the final of 5 Canadians left standing in boxing. Caroline Veyre was fifth in her 57-kilogram weight class. Myriam da Silva (69kg), Mandy Bujold (51kg) and Wyatt Sanford (69kg) all bowed out of their first combat.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed July 31, 2021.
