I want to go for the gold: Lovlina Borgohain

Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain has firmed her sights on going beyond a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The 23-year-old was assured of bagging a medal after defeating former world champion Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei 4-1 to enter the semifinals of the welterweight category. She is now in line to become the third Indian boxer after Vijender Singh and Mary Kom to win an Olympic medal.

Before this match, Lovlina had lost to Chen four times. "I knew I lost to this girl four times before. So, it was a challenge for me to prove to myself. I never thought about proving to others. I thought this was a golden opportunity for me to take my revenge of previous losses against her. There was no strategy while going to the ring. Whatever situation was there, I will handle it there itself. I am happy I bagged the chance to do well. I played whole-heartedly and enjoyed it," said a smiling Lovlina in a press interaction organised by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).

Before making a foray into boxing, Lovlina was into Muay Thai, a form of martial arts from Thailand. Asked whether training in it helped in grasping boxing, Lovlina said, "I had learnt Muay Thai for a year. There used to be one or two punches. I can't say that Muay Thai helped me in getting the medal. But it did help me a little bit. When I got into boxing, I used the one or two punches from Muay Thai in winning the national sub-junior championships."

She was firm on her next target: a gold medal. "I don't want to stop at bronze. I want to go for the gold. Medal is only one. That is gold. For that I have to prepare and plan for the semifinal fight."

When quizzed about her fearless attitude in the ring, Lovlina quipped that she was fearful at the start. But she started to gain confidence by trusting herself. "I wasn't like this before. I used to fear a lot earlier while playing in competitions. Slowly, the fear started to go away after coming into boxing. Earlier, when I used to enter the ring, I had fear in me. But when I started to trust myself and stopped caring about what people said that's how I began to play fearlessly."

Before the Olympics, the youngster had missed a training trip to Italy last year after testing positive for COVID-19 a day before departure. She had come back from a two-day trip to her hometown of Bora Mukhia in Assam's Golaghat district to visit her ailing mother. The virus robbed her of crucial training and exposure.

"Because of the virus, I missed my tour to Italy. There were very less international competitions too. I missed one competition due to it. The feel of competitiveness in the ring was very less. Even sparring was very less. But I thought how to do well if sparring is not there? I trained that way. My coaches and everyone around supported me to do well," said Lovlina.

Lovlina, a big fan of legendary Mohammad Ali, quipped that she had taken some tricks out of his style of play. "I used to watch the long-distance movement of Muhammad Ali. Every boxer is different and has a different style of play. Two boxers can't be the same. I follow and watch some things of Ali. Like his footwork and long punch. Before the Olympics, I saw one or two videos of him."

She has also cited MC Mary Kom as her inspiration. "Mary Kom has been a big inspiration for me since I heard her name after entering boxing. She has struggled a lot and I take inspiration from her. It feels very nice and I get to learn a lot from her. Very happy that she is training with us."

Lovlina will be up against the world champion in her category, Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey in the semifinal on August 4.