Guwahati: Persistence, not speed, is what shaped a 13-year journey from an international debut to an Asiad gold.Each title arrived after an earlier attempt that fell one rung short, a pattern that defines Lovlina Borgohain’s career more than any single result.Thirteen years after her international debut, Borgohain has joined Mary Kom as the second Indian woman boxer to win an Olympic medal and gold at the World and Asian Championships and Asian Games.After Bhogeswar Baruah’s feat in 1966, she is also the second Assamese athlete in six decades to win an individual Asian Games gold.From a junior silver at the Nations Women’s Junior Cup in Serbia in 2013 to boxing’s biggest titles, Borgohain’s rise has been defined by repeated comebacks after falling one step short.She beat China’s Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the women’s 75kg final to turn her previous Asian Games silver into a gold and end a 12-year wait for Indian women’s boxing since Mary Kom’s victory.The Asian Games title was the one major international crown missing from her collection. Borgohain had already won World and Asian Championship gold, as well as an Olympic bronze. She finished with silver at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.The Paris Olympics in 2024 brought another setback. Borgohain’s route to the title was repeatedly interrupted by narrow reversals.Her boxing journey began in 2012, when coach Padum Boro spotted her at a Sports Authority of India trial at her school. She began training at the Netaji Subhas Regional Centre in Guwahati that year and won gold at the Indian Women’s Junior National Championships.In 2017, she won bronze in the 69kg category at the Asian Championships in Vietnam, marking her senior international debut. The following year, she won a World Championship bronze after exiting the Commonwealth Games in Australia in the quarter-finals.Borgohain initially took up Muay Thai, following her twin sisters, Lima and Licha. An SAI scouting programme later redirected her to boxing, recognising in the teenage kickboxer the reflexes and build the sport required.
