CHENNAI: Golden. Top class. Elite.
Indian boxers have been breaking new ground with some telling punches at Glasgow. Jaismine Lamboria, Preeti Sai Pawar and Sakshi Chaudhary led the way at the SEC Hall on Saturday, outclassing their respective rivals to corner glory at the ongoing Commonwealth Games.
Jaismine has made the boxing ring her happy place in the last year or so. The Bhiwani girl has been the winningest boxer from the country during that timeframe. Be it national or World Championships, she has aced it all. No challenge seems to faze her at the moment.
She has made winning a habit and her dominance has been evident throughout this week. After a relatively tricky opening round, Jaismine dismantled her semifinal opponent (the referee was forced to stop the contest) on Friday, the day she turned 25, before going on to outbox a formidable rival in the form of Michela Walsh of England just 24 hours later in the women's 57kg category final. This was incidentally her second medal after bronze in the 2022 edition. That had transpired minutes after Preeti Sai Pawar's win, first boxing gold for India in this edition of the Games. Later, Jadumani Singh Mandengbam (men's 55kg) could not quite match the duo but he walked away with a creditable silver.
Those two hits were just the sign of things to come. In the evening session, Sakshi (51kg), Priya Ghanghas (60kg) added to the gold tally, helping the team record its best-ever showing at the Games. The previous high — 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze — had arrived at the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, Australia. Arundhati Choudhary also emulated Jasmine & Co but Lovlina Borgohain missed out on the top prize, losing to Emma-Sue Greentree of Australia. Sachin Siwach (men's 60kg) helped the team bounce back with a fighting victory.
For a boxer who had been inconsistent until not so long ago, this victory is a step in the right direction. A distant relative of boxing great Captain Hawa Singh, Jaismine was destined for this. However, her journey might not have taken off if not for the blessings of her uncles — Sandeep and Parvinder —who had gone against the will of her grandfather, who did not like the idea of Jaismine getting into combat sports.
Both Jaismine and Preeti — who beat Scarlett Savannah Delgado of Canada in the women's 54kg final — have had their own share of misfortunes in the past. Inconsistency had been holding the former back for long, while Preeti had faced health concerns that had kept her out of the sport. For Jaismine, the Paris Games was the nadir as she exited in the first round. She had had enough and she wanted to recalibrate and find answers.
Barely a few days after the said Olympics got over, she started training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune with determination to find solutions. "She was quite flustered after the Paris Games and she didn't stay at home for long. She came to me saying 'I want to come, I want to train. Please make an individual programme for me'," Army coach Chhote Lal Yadav, who has had a big influence in her game, told The New indian Express.
"It was an off-season then and most boxers were resting. So we worked on many aspects in her game, built her strength and she gradually started winning. Now, there's a drastic change in her game. Her confidence level is high and that is evident during her matches, the way she handles her rivals and the manner in which she has been scoring points off them," the coach, who formerly trained MC Mary Kom, recalled.
Going the extra mile started paying dividends. Her results reflected the same. Gold at national championships was followed by gold at World Cup Stage II in Astana. Then came the big one — the world title in Liverpool in 2025. It was a gold medal that helped the country record their best-ever showing in the coveted event. Jaismine hasn't looked back since then.
Preeti, on the other hand, was always regarded as a boxer with a high ceiling by many but she was out for much of 2025. But after making a winning return in the World Cup Finals in Greater Noida, she has kept the momentum going.
"The manner in which they carry themselves, the way they talk, it shows that they are riding on confidence at the moment. Now, they have that feeling that they can beat anyone," Chhote Lal remarked.
Like Jaismine, Preeti also trains under Chhote Lal and the rest of the coaches at the ASI when they are not part of the national camp. In fact, Arundhati Choudhary and Sakshi are also part of the renowned institute. Apart from their home-based coaches and national coaches and support staff, the coaches and experts at the ASI have played a big hand in this success story.
"With the support of experts from Olympic Gold Quest, we were working on their strength and conditioning. It was individual-based training. There was body-weight training in the morning, technical training in the evening. We were looking to cut down their mistakes and make them better. Now the results are there to see," Chhote Lal said.
Discipline is non-negotiable at the elite level. That is common among most high-level athletes. The coach was effusive in his praise for all and he felt that Jaismine and Preeti could go a long way if they can maintain their standards. "Preeti is highly disciplined in every regard — training, food, nutrition. If I tell her we'll be training at 4, she will come 15 minutes before that time. If she can maintain that, I feel both Jaismine and Preeti can challenge for medals in the upcoming Olympics."