Lovlina Borgohain: Easy to qualify for Olympics, hard to win gold

Lovlina Borgohain may have qualified for the 2020 Olympics at the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers but the 22-year-old isn’t content with her achievement just yet as she has set her sights on the gold medal in Tokyo.

The Indian boxer arrived in Amman, Jordan as one of India’s promising stars after her bronze medal feats at the 2018 and 2019 World Championships held in New Delhi and Russia respectively.

Borgohain has kept the promise so far by assuring an Olympic berth in her maiden attempt at the qualifiers against Uzbekistan’s Maftunakhon Melieva in the women’s welterweight (64-69kg) category.

Coming to the tournament as the highest-ranked Indian woman boxer and the third highest in her category**,** Lovlina Borgohain had a smooth sail against the Uzbek as she won the bout through a unanimous decision.

However, according to her, it was the easy part. “My main goal is to win a gold medal in Tokyo. It's easy to qualify for Tokyo but it's hard to win a gold medal there,” Lovlina Borgohain told the Olympic Channel.

The second-seeded Indian welterweight pugilist was seen using her height to good effect in order to stay out of Melieva’s jabs. Though the Uzbek boxer grew more into the bout with every passing round, a passive Lovlina Borgohain remained comfortable in escaping her opponents’ blows.

“I played more safely against her. She was short, and in the end, it was an easy win for me,” Lovlina added.

Her run at the at the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers might have been cut short after a semifinal loss to the third-seeded Hong Gu of China, but Lovlina Borgohain is sure to have taken enough lessons from her outing in Amman. 

With Tokyo 2020 inching closer with every passing day, she will be once again back in at her base working on her weakness to be ready for the challenge that awaits her at the 2020 Olympics.

When and where to watch the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers

You can follow all the action from the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers live exclusively on the Olympic Channel as well as our Facebook page. The evening session is scheduled to begin at 8:30 PM IST.

You can also follow the daily live blog in both English and Hindi on the Olympic Channel.