Shillong: Before introducing Assam’s Gourav Mazumdar, how about a brief recap of his journey?
Born to a tea-seller in Tinsukia, raised by his aunt and renowned boxing coach Kalpana Choudhary, and shaken by the death of his opponent last year, this teenaged pugilist has braved all odds before ending his campaign at the second North East Olympic Games with a bronze medal in the men’s 48kg category here.
For Gourav, boxing has never been a mere sport but a way of life, something which he has inherited from his mother, Sarita Mazumdar, and then from his aunt, an Asian championship gold medallist. After imbibing the initial tricks of the trade from his mother, young Gourav was sent to Guwahati to fine-tune his skills.
“I was in Class 3 when my parents decided to send me to my aunt for proper coaching since she was an international boxer and there weren’t any proper boxing facilities back home during that time,” Gourav told EastMojo as he takes a stroll around the Indoor Hall here on a chilly Tuesday evening.
“For me, boxing came as a natural choice, I was used to seeing my mother and aunt in the ring while growing up, and so I started shadowboxing at our place when my mom would train. But there were no proper coaching facilities there, and our family income also wasn’t enough to support boxing as a full-time career option.”
“But as destiny would have it, my parents soon realised my love for the sport, and they decided to send me to Geetanagar in Guwahati, where my aunt stays. She is currently with the Railways and trains at the Maligaon centre. My younger brother is also a boxer, and he too followed me to the SAI centre, we train together in Guwahati,” he added.
Gourav’s father Uttam Mazumdar runs a tea stall in Tinsukia and doubles his effort each day to support his sons’ careers. Gourav’s uncle Dulal Mazumdar, who is into the construction business, makes sure that the promising boxers in the family are well looked after, and spends a large part of his earnings on his nephews.
In 2018, Gourav qualified in the trials for a berth at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in the city and never looked back. A bronze medal at the Youth Nationals in Sonipat was followed by a gold at the All Assam Inter-district Sub Junior and Youth Boxing championship at home in 2021.
He went on to be adjudged the ‘best boxer’ of the tournament, held at the Sarusajai Sports Complex in March 2021, but what transpired in the first round of the meet against Sivasagar’s Shyamprasad Sarma, left a scar in young Gourav’s mind.
“After the third and final round of the opening bout on March 16, I was back in my corner with my coaches removing my gloves, and suddenly when the referee wanted both of us to declare the winner, I turned back to see Shyamprasad lying unconscious in the ring. We went forward to check him, and the doctors and medical staff soon rushed into the ring,” he said with a heavy voice.
“He was soon shifted to a local hospital before being transferred to the Apollo Hospital. He battled for three-four days before eventually passing away. He was a very good boxer, coming from the same region, I knew his game, and it was really painful when I heard the news of his death,” Gourav continued while searching for a bottle of water after describing the unfortunate sequence of events on that fateful March evening.
“It was heartbreaking,” he added.
In 2022, Gourav returned empty-handed from the Khelo India Games in Panchkula, but soon graduated to the senior category to pocket a gold medal at the Inter-District tournament. He doubled the joy with another gold at the East Zone tournament in Sikkim, before bagging a silver in the NE Festival in Imphal.
While his boxing accolades in the sport are enough to fetch a job, Gourav now aims to clear his 10th, which he has been postponing for four years, to be eligible for a better job.
But for now, boxing is the priority, and the upcoming trials for the senior national championships in December is the first target in Gourav’s mind as he packs off from Shillong after an eventful day in the ring.
“I was confident of advancing to the final after the first couple of rounds, but it’s the judges’ call at the end of the day. I will have to go back with a bronze, and prepare myself for the bigger challenge,” he said before signing off with a smile.
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