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During the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2022, Tokyo 2020 Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain decided to leave early for the Games Village from the Alexander stadium on Thursday but was left helpless due to unavailability of a travelling medium.
Earlier, Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain had demanded for her personal coach Sandhya Gurung's Games Village accreditation which was later resolved. However, the 24-year-old Indian boxer landed in another mess when she and Muhammad Hussamuddin decided to leave the opening ceremony of the Birmingham Games 2022 midway to train next morning but couldn't find a taxi.
They later took the first bus bound for the Games Village as they were told taxi was not available. Lovlina told PTI, "We want to train in the morning as we have a bout day after. The ceremony will go on for a while so we thought of leaving. We asked for a taxi but we were told that was not available."
India's Chef de Mission Rajesh Bhandari was left disappointed with the boxers decision to leave early. "We were in the middle of the ceremony and I got to know later that she and another boxer left early. We all came in buses and taxi option was not available at that time. They shouldn't have come if they wanted to leave early."
Bhandari, who is also the Vice President of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), added, "There were so many athletes who decided not to come as they had training or competition in the morning, which we completely understand. I will be speaking to the boxing team on this matter."
A total of 164 athletes and officials appeared in the opening ceremony across all contingents. Many Indian athletes decided to stay back at the Village to prepare for their opening games involving the members of women's cricket team.