Kula pradip Bhagawati

In Lovlina Borgohain's house in Baromukhia, there is a steel almirah that her mother Mamoni keeps locked. Inside, there is a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medal. Next to it, a Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games silver medal. And a 2023 World Championship gold medal from New Delhi. There is still space on the top shelf.

Lovlina Borgohain enters the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya with high confidence following her strong silver-medal performance at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow — and she is here to fill that space. She was the silver medallist at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou and the bronze medallist at the Tokyo Olympics. In Japan, Lovlina is aiming to upgrade her previous silver to a gold medal for India. And for the first time in three years, she looks like she can.

From Glasgow to Aichi: The Confidence is back

If you saw Lovlina in Paris 2024, you saw a tired boxer. She had moved from 69kg to 75kg. She was cutting less weight but carrying more muscle. She lost in the quarterfinals to eventual gold medallist Li Qian of China, and walked out without a medal. People in Assam asked, "Is it over?"

Glasgow answered. Last month, at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Lovlina fought in 75kg like she owned it. In the semifinal, She knocked down Wales' Commonwealth champion — the first knockdown of her senior international career. She was attacking in Round 1, not waiting for Round 3. She was using her 5'10" reach to jab, not to hold. She lost the final 2-3 on split to England's Chantelle Reid, a decision Indian coaches still contest. But she won silver, and more importantly, she won her style back.

"Glasgow mein maine khud ko wapas dekha," she told her coach after the final. She landed in Aichi-Nagoya four days later. No rest. No break. Because momentum in boxing is like weight — you don't lose it."High confidence," her team said in their note. And you can see it. At practice at Nippongaishi Hall, she is smiling between rounds. She is playing with kids who came for autographs. The pressure of being Olympic medallist that made her quiet after Tokyo — it is gone.

The Silver She Wants To Repaint

Hangzhou, September 2023 — Asian Games final, Women's 75kg. Lovlina vs Li Qian, China. 0-5. It was Lovlina's first Asian Games final at 75kg. She had just moved up from 69kg, the weight in which she won Tokyo bronze. She was still learning how to fight girls who were taller, heavier. Li Qian, 33 then, Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, was too experienced. She beat Lovlina with ease. Lovlina took silver. She stood on podium, smiled, but later said, "Silver accha hai, par gold gold hota hai." That line has followed her for three years. In Japan, she has a chance to repaint it.
The stakes:

She is already a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist. She is already a silver medallist at 2022 Asian Games. She is a World Champion from 2023. If she wins gold in Aichi, she becomes only the second Indian woman boxer after Mary Kom (2014) to have the full set — Olympic medal, World gold, Asian Games gold. And the only active Indian boxer, male or female, to have it. At 28, this is likely her last Asian Games. She will be 32 in 2030. For a girl from Baromukhia village, Golaghat district, who started boxing because her twin sisters Licha and Lima did kickboxing in a small SAI centre in Guwahati in 2011 — this is the last upgrade.

Why 75kg is The Loneliest Weight

Women's 75kg in Aichi has only 12 names, but it has four world medallists. Lovlina is seeded No. 2, so she enters directly in the quarterfinal. In Asian Games boxing, both losing semifinalists get bronze. So one win tomorrow and India has a medal. But the draw after that is brutal. The semifinal could bring Kazakhstan's Natalya Bogdanova, reigning world champion, or Uzbekistan's Aziza Zokirova, world bronze medallist. And the final, likely, brings Li Qian again — the woman who beat her in Hangzhou.

Three fights. Three Olympic or world medallists. To turn silver to gold, Lovlina has to beat the best. But maybe that is why she is smiling. Because in Tokyo, she was the underdog who won bronze. In Hangzhou, she was the newcomer at 75kg who won silver. In Aichi-Nagoya, she is finally the 75kg boxer. Not moving up, not adjusting. She is 75kg. Natural. Strong. She enters with a Commonwealth silver from Glasgow. She wants to leave with an Asian gold from Japan. The almirah in Baromukhia has space. And gold is heavier than silver — but Lovlina has been carrying the weight of a colour for three years. Now she wants to change it.

(Kulapradip Bhagawati is a prominent senior sports journalist from Assam, recognized as the first journalist from Northeast India to cover three major global sports events: the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, and the Cricket World Cup.)