Guwahati, July 30: For Tiken Borgohain, it's difficult to watch his daughter fight inside the ring. On Friday morning too, he was off the television set from 8.48 am while other family members glued to it watching their favourite Lovlina Borgohain scripting history, at Baromukhiya village in Golaghat district.
"I knew she is going to do it," an excited Tiken Borgohain, Lovlina's father reacts, after the pugilist beat Chinese Taipei's Nien Chin Chen in the women's welterweight quarterfinal 4-1.
It's a festive mood at their house since morning as they were expecting history to be created.
"I avoid watching her live. I can't handle the pressure of when she is fighting," says the senior Borgohain.
But he is super excited and confident that Lovlina would create history.
"She called us at around 5.30 am before she started her preparation for her bout. She told us that she was pretty confident. We again spoke after the match and she told us that she is coming with gold. I believe she can do it," he adds.
"We are so happy. She (NC Chen) was the girl for which Lovlina couldn't proceed in several games earlier. But today, it's a different story."
Lovlina has already proved her worth at the international arena by winning several crucial championships. She won back to back medals (bronze) at the world championships in 2018 and 2019.
During a conversation with this writer, India's high performance director Santiago Nieva had predicted that Lovlina is an Olympic medal prospect.
"Lovlina…when I came she was a young upcoming boxer without any big international medal. I remember Raffaele Bergamasco selected her for commonwealth games in spite of the fact that she didn't have the international experience and I think he was proved right. Last year's world championship, she won bronze for team India. And now, again this year she has a very close bout in the semifinal and got the bronze. I would rate Lovlina as one of our major Olympic medal hope for next year," Santiago had said in 2019.
In the process, Lovlina becomes the first female athlete from Assam to represent the country in the Olympics and of course the first ever to win a medal. She is the third Indian boxer to win a medal in Olympics after Vijender Singh (2008) and MC Mary Kom (2012).
