Guwahati, Jul 12: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has signed on a special gamosa—a ‘good luck gamosa'—to send his best wishes to boxer Lovlina Borgohain, who will participate in the Paris Olympics. Lovlina, a bronze medallist at the 2020 Tokyo Games, will attempt to upgrade her medal this time.
This is an initiative of the Assam Amateur Boxing Association (AABA) to send good wishes to Lovlina. This time, Lovlina happens to be the lone athlete from Assam to represent the country in the Olympics.
After collecting the good wishes from players and some notable personalities, AABA Secretary Hemanta Kumar Kalita, who is also the Secretary General of the Boxing Federation of India, will hand over the ‘good luck gamosa’ to Lovlina. The Chief Minister was the first person to sign on the gamosa.
The Chief Minister also interacted with the boxer, who is undergoing training at the moment in Germany, through a video call.
Boxing is one of the disciplines where Assam has been producing Olympians in recent times. Shiva Thapa represented India in the 2012 London Olympics and in the 2016 Rio Olympics. And Lovlina won a bronze medal in her maiden appearance at the Olympics in Tokyo. Thus, she became the first woman from Assam to win an Olympic medal.
And in the pan-India scene, she became just the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal after Vijender Singh (2008) and Mary Kom (2012). If she can win another medal, Lovlina will be the first Indian pugilist to win back-to-back Olympic medals and the third Indian athlete to win two consecutive individual medals after wrestler Sushil Kumar (2008 & 2012) and shuttler PV Sindhu (2016 & 2020) in the post-independence era.
Apart from Hemanta Kumar Kalita, AABA Joint Secretary Ashok Barua and two senior members of the Assam Olympic Association, Kalyan Gogoi and Banibrata Das, were present during the good luck signing event with the CM on Thursday evening.
