New Delhi: Olympic bronze medallist in women’s boxing Lovlina Borgohain is confident that her move to a higher weight category will help her break the jinx of not winning a gold in major international tournaments. Lovlina Borgohain aims to break the jinx when the IBA Women’s World Championships begins March 15. Lovlina will be competing in the 75kg category. Earlier she won two World Championships bronze and a third place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 69kg category.
The focus in the prestigious tournament will be as much on India’s ace boxer Nikhat Zareen retaining her gold. However, all will be watch whether Lovlina can break her gold jinx.
“Yes, that (not winning gold) is at the back of my mind. But I am desperate to change the colour of the medal this time around. The effort is always to play for gold medal and this time too it is no different. The preparations are going well (in Patiala) and I hope I can break that jinx on home turf,” said Lovlina.
The 25-year-old Assam pugilist also added that being a part of the same squad that also has reigning World Champion Zareen will not put any added pressure on her to perform and aim for gold.
“I am not thinking in terms of whether the pressure is more or less on me (with Nikhat being a world champion). We have accepted we have to live with pressure; it is always there in competition,” asserted Lovlina.
“My focus is only on how well I can perform and concentrate on the task at hand. And that also means, not to take the added pressure of thinking about the result,” added Lovlina. She said she has started focusing on packing more power to her punches, given that a higher weight category comes with more powerful opponents.
“At the end of the day what matters is our work ethic. The Gita also says work hard and do not bother about the result. I am a great believer in that,” informed Lovlina.
The ace boxer said she felt confident in the higher weight category as she did not have to bother about how many kilos she was gaining.
“I am more comfortable in this (75kg) weight category. There is no tension to control my weight. Yes, I have also changed my technique a bit to go with the higher weight category,” informed Lovlina.
India also has a new women’s coach in Dmitry Dmitruk, the former high performance coach of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association and Lovlina said he is ‘working wholeheartedly’ along with national coach Bhaskar Bhatt to ensure she adopts to the new category.
“We have a new coach as well and whatever changes I have brought about in my technique post the Olympic, they are helping me wholeheartedly to adopt the changes,” said Lovlina.
Despite the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) trying its best to get an Olympic quota status for the championships, the International Boxing Association (IBA) hasn’t yet clarified on the issue. However, Lovlina said it won’t bother her much. “Olympic or no Olympic quota, we always aim for the top podium finish. So, nothing changes there,” Lovlina signed off.
