Lovlina Borgohain holds India’s maiden medal from the 2026 Commonwealth Games even as the Indian Games team starts its preparations for the Games in Glasgow.
The 75kg boxer Lovlina, who won the Olympic bronze medal in the women’s category, picked a first-round bye in the semifinals. If both the losing semi-finalists get bronze in the Commonwealth Games, then Lovlina is assured a podium spot without fighting.
Waking up sporting an Olympic medal, World Championships and Asian Championships silver, and another medal from the Asian Championships, the boxer of Assam is marking yet another milestone in his decorated career.
Lovlina will now play the semi-final stage on July 31, in which she will face TKBP Taafaki for a stage in the gold medal race.
The early win also gives a huge morale boost to the Indian contingent a day ahead of the main ceremony at which Lovlina Borgohain will be one of the baton bearer of India.
India faced challenges from financial limitations and due to the change of the host city, have reduced its number of athletes to 125 to represent at the 2026 Commonwealth Games with the programme shortened to 10 sports.
Medals galore in disciplines like badminton, wrestling, hockey and even table tennis will no longer feature in this edition and India’s impressive record of winning medals in the top-five at the Commonwealth Games is expected to be sustained with athletics, boxing and weightlifting.
Boxers Jaismine Lamboria, Preeti Pawar, Sakshi Chaudhary and Arundhati Choudhary are other top medal fighters of India.