Borgohain to face first big test in middleweight at Asian Championships

Lovlina Borgohain has found the going tough post the high of winning an Olympic medal in Tokyo. While the medals have dried down, being in the public eye all the time has led to intense scrutiny on and off the ring.

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That said, she has started afresh after CWG and switched to the 75kg (middleweight) weight class in preparation for the Paris Olympics. The welterweight category (69kg) is no longer part of the Olympic programme and Borgohain needs to move up to a heavier category to qualify for the 2024 Paris Games. The upcoming Asian Championships, starting in Jordan on Monday, will be her first major competition in the middleweight and a big test for the Olympic bronze medallist.

A gold medal at the National Games this month in 75kg has just come as a timely boost to her sagging morale. This year, she has returned from the world championships in Istanbul and the Commonwealth Games without a medal.

Coming back to the national camp in Patiala in September after the CWG loss, Borgohain chose not to take the services of her personal coach Sandhya Gurung and strength and conditioning trainer Amey Kolekar, whom she had relied on after Tokyo Olympics to draw her schedule and training plans.

To prepare for the 75kg weight class, Borgohain has been working with a dietician and increased her weight by three-four kgs. She has worked on improving her strength and attacking game.

“She was quite dejected after the loss at the Commonwealth Games and she has put in a lot of hard work in training to make the shift to a higher weight class,” said women’s chief coach Bhaskar Bhatt.

“The middleweight division is a tough category and the competition at the Asian championships is of a high level. It will be a very good opportunity for Lovlina to assess herself and prepare for Olympic qualification events next year,” he said.

At the worlds in Istanbul, she went down 1-4 to Cindy Djankeu Ngamb in the pre-quarterfinals. In the earlier round she had beaten a strong boxer in Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei. In Birmingham, she lost by a split decision against Rosie Eccles of Wales in the quarterfinal and never looked in control.

“We had a discussion on areas she needed to work on, especially on her boxing skills. She was not that attacking and mostly using her reach and single punch for scoring. We have worked on combination punches and her attack.”

“In middleweight, you need to have both speed and power. The boxers are tall and punches are heavy. The advantage for Lovlina is her height and she makes full use of her long reach. It will take some time to add power to her game but it will come. She is a fighter and she has the hunger to come back,” added Bhatt.

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