A resurgent Lovlina Borgohain ready to shine again after gold at Asian Championships
Indian boxer Lovlia Borgohain is one of the best in the world and her back-to-back medals in the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, along with a medal at the Tokyo Olympics suggest so. But post he win at the Olympics, her form took a dip; but now finally she is back with a bang.
Even though she lost early in the 2022 World Championship and CWG, she has struck back with a gold at the Asian Championships. Even though she was criticised a for dip in form, she realises, it was expected. "Life has changed a lot since I won the Olympic medal. Back then, I was nobody. Today people know me and look up to me as a role model. Hence, they expect a lot more from me," Lovlina said in a chat with The Bridge.
"If my role model does not perform well, I would be disappointed too. It is the same case here. Since the Olympic medal, I had not been at my best and so naturally there was a lot of criticism and trolling," she added with a chuckle.
Post the Tokyo Olympics, what did not go in her favour was the change in her weight category; she went from 69kg to 75kg. "The couple of tournaments I played after the Olympics was at a time when I was training keeping in mind the switch in weight category for the Paris Olympics," said Lovlina, who now competes in the 75kg division.
"When you change your weight category, your body undergoes a lot of changes. I was somewhere caught in between the two weight divisions and it naturally affected my performance," Lovlina added.
But a gold at the Asian Championships is bound to give the boxer a lot of confidence. "It was a very different challenge for me competing in 75kg. I did not know a lot of my opponents but in the end managed to come out on top. The Asian level is very tough for Indian boxers. There are a lot of good players (in Asia), so it felt good to overcome this challenge after a slump in form," Lovlina said.
"The National Games was my first-ever event in 75kg. India has a lot of good boxers in this category and winning gold there gave me a lot of confidence going into the Asian Championships," she stated. Lovlina feels not taking the criticism and trolls on social media to heart is one of the major reasons behind her resurgence in the last two months.
"I would not say that I shut off media or social media completely. I just try and take these criticisms positively as a motivation to do better. If you do not face such difficulties in life, you would not grow. These things just push me to do better," the Olympic bronze medallist said.