New Delhi: It’s been a whirlwind week for Preeti Pawar. Having won the 54kg title at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG), the 22-year-old has been fielding incessant interview requests, congratulatory calls and photo-ops. Shortly after landing in Delhi, the young pugilist, along with the rest of the boxing medallists, met Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, MoS Sports Raksha Khadse and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju for a series of felicitations. Back in her home in Bhiwani, she is sucked into another round of celebrations, but Preeti isn’t complaining.
“It feels special to get so much love and attention. Such moments are very rare in an athlete’s life, so why not enjoy it?” she said.
“As a team, all boxers were confident of overhauling our previous best CWG medal tally, but I don’t think even we expected to come back with so many gold medals. A lot of credit goes to our coaches for preparing us for each opponent.”
That said, her mind is already ticking for the Asian Games. With less than 50 days to go for the quadrennial spectacle in Japan, Preeti knows she can’t afford to put her guard down completely. Having won a bronze medal at the 2023 edition of the Games in Hangzhou, the boxer, supported by JSW, is aware of the challenges.
“It’s a very tough competition. You are bound to meet world-class boxers in every round. I’d say we’ll have to be especially prepared for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan because their boxers are technically very good, and they also have a lot of power,” she said.
Besides the two central Asian nations, China, Korea, Thailand, Philippines and hosts Japan will ensure quality competition. The 2023 edition saw Chinese boxers dominate the women’s field, winning four of the six gold medals on offer besides claiming a silver. Overall, the Chinese boxers made five of the six women finals.
Preeti’s 54kg class was won by North Korea’s Pang Chol-mi who went on to win an Olympic bronze in Paris the next year. At the Olympics, 14 of the 24 medals were won by Asian countries, none by India.
Preeti was one of the three women boxers to win a medal in Hangzhou. Her third-place result was accompanied by a bronze from Nikhat Zareen (51kg) and a silver from Lovlina Borgohain (75kg).
“Asian Games was a great learning curve. What struck me most was the belief that some of the boxers carried. All of us prepare well, but not everyone enters the ring with the winning mindset. I’ll be better prepared this time and I hope to change the colour of my medal.”
“Also, I don’t want to stop at the Asian Games. I want to take this momentum to the LA Olympics and win a medal there,” she added.
Indian boxers have had a barren run at the Olympics for a while now. The last three Olympics have produced only a bronze medal by Lovlina (69kg) in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.
“You have to be a complete boxer to win at events like the Asian Games or the Olympics,” Preeti reasoned. “A lot of times we believe throwing power punches alone will impress the judges. We can also make the mistake of boxing from too far for the fear of getting hit. It’s a very cerebral sport, and you can’t get into the ring thinking that your plan A is going to work all the time.”
A case in point, she said, was her CWG final against Canada’s Scarlett Delgado, which the Indian won with a unanimous verdict. “She is a much better boxer than what the verdict says,” Preeti said. “She was reading my game beautifully in the first round and was avoiding my punches. So I changed the gameplan a bit in the next rounds. You have to think on your feet. That’s why I spend time with coaches studying my opponents and planning alternate plans. I want to be a complete boxer.”
Preeti will next head to the national camp that begins in NIS, Patiala on August 10 where the 11-member Asian Games-bound boxing team — five women and six men — will give shape to its medal aspirations.
