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Journalism of Courage
It was several hours after her bout on Sunday when Lovlina Borgohain, 22, realised the significance of her achievement — qualifying for the Olympics. After beating Uzbekistan’s Maftunakhon Melieva in the quarterfinals of the women’s 69 kg category to earn a ticket for Tokyo, Lovlina was totally exhausted.
Later when she reached the hotel, she sat with coaches Raffaele Bergamasco and Sandhya Gurung for a post-mortem of the day’s fight and later watch the videos of her next opponent — 2018 World Championship silver medallist and reigning Asian champion Gu Hong of China. And it was finally while talking to her father, that it sunk in and she broke down.
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“I was only thinking about the bout against Melieva and listening to coaches about the next bout. It was only when my father called me and showed my mother and neighbours celebrating that I started crying. Going to the Olympics has been my dream since I started boxing and this win is the first step towards realising my dream,” shares an emotional Lovlina while talking with The Indian Express.
Growing up in village Baro Mukhia in Golaghat district of Assam, Lovlina would initially practise muay thai at the school ground in nearby Barpathar village. The youngster would accompany her father Tiken Borgohain, who used to first buy tea from gardens and sell it from his shop, to the school to train for the martial art. Her twin sisters — kickboxers Lima and Licha — too would follow them.
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It was only the visit of SAI coach Padum Boro at their village in 2012 which saw Lovlina giving trials and getting selected as a trainee at Guwahati. Her selection also meant that she had to leave her village and shift to Guwahati, a city that was 300 kms away from her village. “I did not know anything about boxing except from reading about Mary Kom Didi in local newspapers. I would practise muay thai at my home too and when I was selected as boxing trainee by Boro sir, some of our relatives and neighbors told my parents not to send me to Guwahati to train. But my parents have been supportive to all three of us,” recalls Lovlina.
It was at the end of 2016 that Lovlina was inducted into the senior camp in the 75 Kg category on the basis of her youth exploits and it also meant that the youngster trained under coach Sandhya Gurung. While she would make the shift to 69 Kg soon, Gurung saw many shortcomings in Lovlina’s game including her fear of hitting the opponent. “A lot of junior and youth boxers face problems in senior category with their basics and it was the same with Lovlina. We worked on things like stepping and standing basics apart from correcting her leg position before any punch. She would cross her legs or would go back before the punch and could only hit 1-2 punches. Apart from the technique, she was also facing a mental block of hitting the opponent with power,” recalls Gurung.
Prior to the Asian Championships in Vietnam, where she bagged the bronze medal, Lovlina also had a chance meeting with coach Poonam Beniwal, wife of 2006 CWG champion Akhil Kumar, at Rohtak. Beniwal told her to use her long reach and suggested her to watch videos of two-time Olympic champion Claressa Shields of USA. “Sandhya mam made me go to the basics and made me learn counter-attacks too. When I came into the national camp. I would hesitate to approach boxers like Mary Kom and Pooja Rani but as I spent time, I would not hesitate asking them for tips. When Poonam mam told me to focus on long distance and suggested me to watch videos of London and Rio Olympics champion Claressa Shields, I would spend hours watching the videos and trying them out in practice,” shares Lovlina.
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The last two years have seen Lovlina winning two successive bronze medals in world championships in Delhi and Russia in 2018 and 2019 and India’s high performance director for women’s boxing Raffaele Bergamasco sees a big change in her boxing. “Initially, I spent some time in improving her feet movement and made her realise that she can move her body more to attack from different angles. Her strength has been her stamina gained in the last two years apart from her reaction time in the ring. We have some things in mind to improve in her game before Tokyo and she can win a medal,” says the Italian coach.
As for the Borgohain family, it was holi in their village a day before the festival due to the celebrations in the village. “I have always loved watching sport and to see her now in the Olympics is the biggest gift for us and for our village. It was holi for us today after her win and the whole village celebrated her feat. It would be more celebrations when she wins the Olympic medal,” says Tiken Borgohain.
