Tokyo Olympics 2020: Lovlina Borgohain's road to assuring a medal in her maiden Games

Welterweight (69kg) boxer Lovlina Borgohain has assured India of their second medal at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics after winning her quarter-final bout against Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen. All semi-finalists in boxing are assured of a medal. The colour of the medal will be decided after the final result. Lovlina won 4-1 in the last eight bout by split decision. She had defeated Nadine Apetz of Germany 3-2 in the Round of 16. Lovlina will meet Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli in the semis on 4 August. Here’s her road to assuring the medal: After bagging a silver at the India Open and a bronze at the Strandja Cup, she finally clinched a gold medal at the Umakhanov Memorial Boxing tournament in Russia in August 2019, when she grabbed a narrow 3-2 win over Assunta Canfora in the final. The Italian was the same opponent who had previously beaten her in the India Open final. In October, she made her second consecutive appearance at the AIBA World Women’s Boxing Championships in Ulan Ude, Russia, and settled for her second consecutive bronze, losing 2-3 against China’s Yang Liu in the semi-final. Prior to the event, she was one of the two boxers (the other one being Mary Kom) who had received direct entry without having to face the trials. The Assamese boxer secured the Olympic berth in March 2020 in the 69kg category, claiming a 5-0 win over Uzbekistan’s Maftunakhon Melieva in the Asia and Oceania Boxing qualification tournament. She eventually signed off with a bronze after losing to China’s Gu Hong in a unanimous 5-0 verdict. Lovlina was rewarded for her consistency with the Arjuna Award in the same year and became the sixth person from Assam to receive the medal. Coping with COVID-19 Borgohain was full of confidence after securing the Olympic quota but shortly afterwards, the 23-year-old tested positive for COVID-19. Out of action, she eventually had to miss out on the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) sanctioned 52-day tour to Europe for elite boxers. “I tried to keep myself positive and motivated, used to do meditation and I chose to focus on the future possibilities, make myself better,” she was quoted as saying by News18 speaking of that time. “My journey back to fitness was challenging. When I was home, I did have problems training as I did not have much equipment in the beginning. I was sent some and could finally get back to training again. Initially, after recovering, it was hard to train but slowly and steadily started getting back to form,” she added. Bronze leading into Games  In her final competitive event ahead of the Games, Borgohain won bronze in the Asian Boxing Championships in May 2021, suffering a close defeat (2-3) to Uzbekistan’s Navbakhor Khamidova in the semi-final. Click here to check out form guides for the rest of the Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.