Lovlina Borgohain the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist has expressed that she has been feeling “mentally harassed” days before the opening of the Birmingham Commonwealth, she has said that the constant removal of her coaches from CWG contingent has been affecting her mentally and creating a lot of pressure.
Lovlina will be competing in the 70kg category and will be looking for glory again, but she vented out on twitter expressing her frustration and complaining that her training was getting affected severely as one of her coaches, strength and condition expert Amey Kolekar was sent back to India and her other coach Sandhya Gurung had not been able to enter the athlete village in Birmingham. Although she has not taken any names or accused anyone directly it is quite evident that she is talking about the Boxing Federation of India.
This is quite disappointing that such a prestigious player is not getting adequate support from the Indian Boxing Federation.
You can check out her tweet here
— Lovlina Borgohain (@LovlinaBorgohai) July 25, 2022
She expressed on her twitter, “It’s with great regret that I have to say that I am constantly experiencing a lot of harassment due to the removal of my coaches.”
“The constant removal of my coaches, who have helped me win the Olympic medal for my country, is affecting my training process for the competition. One of them is Dronacharya awardee Sandhya Gurung Ji.”
Lovlina has alleged that the preparations for the Birmingham Commonwealth games are getting affected due to the unavailability of her coaches.
Gurung is currently in Birmingham but do to the failure of accreditation to the games village she is not able to enter and help Lovlina prepare for the Commonwealth games.
The IOA issued a statement on Monday night and has confirmed that a special request was made to the organizing committee that handles the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth games, they have requested that on a priority basis Ms Gurung.
You can check out the tweet from the official handle here
IOA STATEMENT: pic.twitter.com/uxgc8Fm6jp
— Team India (@WeAreTeamIndia) July 25, 2022
Union sports minister Anurag Thakur has requested the IOA that accreditation should be given to Ms Gurung so that Lovlinas training can go as per her requirements. Thakur has been monitoring the development and diplomatic channels between UK and India and putting pressure could also be on the cards and explored as one of the options so that Lovlina gets whatever she needs adequately.
Gurung has been training Lovlina since a long time and Lovlina has always given her credit for her rise and performance in the boxing circuit.
At the moment Sandhya Gurung Ji is being denied entry into the games village and Lovlina’s training has been stopped since the last 8 days, even her second coach has been sent back to India and this is affecting her a lot.
Lovlina also revealed that during the camp she had to plead that her coaches are with her and she expects to break politics that is going on so that she can gain glory for India once again.
It is extremely unfortunate that such a prestigious player has to go through such hardships and she is the first person after Vijendar Singh and Mary Kom to win a medal in boxing for India, so such treatment is not expected and we hope that this is resolved soon and she is allowed to train as per her needs.
