New Delhi: Kazakhstan’s Elina Bazarova was pounding Preeti Pawar. The opening round of her first bout at the Senior Asian Championships had thrown Preeti into deep waters. She missed more than connecting while the quick-footed Elina landed blow after blow to take the first round 5-0 in the bantamweight fight.
Boxing can be cruel. The hard blows numb the minds of boxers, make their feet unsteady and toss the gameplan out of the ring. The instruction from the coach’s corner was either take the second round to have any chance, or she would be packed off.
Preeti not only took the second round, she was so dominant that one of the judges gave a 10-8 card. In the third round, the southpaw kept up the pressure, bailing herself out of jail. Once she found her range, she was ran through her opponents. It included victories against Paris Olympics bronze medallist Im Aeji of South Korea and Chinese Taipei’s Huang Hsiao-wen, a three-time world champion and an Olympic medallist.
Having beaten boxers with such credentials and won the Asian title, Preeti will enter the ring at the Asian Games as one of India’s strong medal contenders. The 54kg boxer is also fresh from adding the Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold to her achievements.
Every competition is important for Preeti, but she considers them only a stepping stone towards the 2028 LA Olympics. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, she entered as one of the country’s best talents but was raw and new to international boxing. A bout of Hepatitis A before the Games had drained her energy. Coming back after the last 16 loss in Paris, she was low, struggled to get her confidence back, and lost her place to Sakshi Chaudhary in the team. However, she has then staged an impressive comeback.
Training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune with quality sparring partners and coaches, she gradually built her strength and boxing and has now taken charge of the 54kg class. It has been quite a turnaround since winning the World Cup Finals at home.
“Boxing is both a physical and mental sport. We have to be mentally strong and sharp so that we can quickly react and defend punches,” Preeti says.
“I have worked on my reaction skills, and most importantly on how to stay calm in the ring in pressure situations. When we face a tough opponent, there is pressure and it will always be there. What makes the difference is how we control it during the bout so that it doesn’t affect our performance. I have been working on every front, I don’t want to leave anything to chance for the LA Olympics,” she says.
The Asian Games, however, will bring its own set of challenges, the way she faced against Bazarova.
“She was a bit slow in the first round. We asked her to show more energy, step back and counter, and put more pressure on the Kazakh boxer. We told her, ‘If you don’t win this round, it will be over for you.’ The next two rounds she was fantastic,” says Md. Aitesaamuddin, a coach with the Indian team who has also trained her at ASI, Pune.
“It took her some time to regain focus after Paris. In ASI, we have worked on her fitness. She used to rush and attack, now she has improved her defence, she is not going all out, and her movement in the ring is better,” says the Army coach.
Preeti is aware that all eyes will be on her and she is likely to get the same opponents she met in the Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar earlier this year. But she is not overawed.
“Asian Games will be tough because some of the top boxing nations will be there. But the Asian Championships gold has given me a lot of confidence. I have competed against them recently. To beat the Paris Olympics medallist (Im Aeji), who is a good technical boxer and also a southpaw like me, was big. I was under a bit of pressure against her as to how I would box, how to cover, but I started well in the first round with a 5-0 card and kept her under pressure throughout.”
She has also beaten the tall Huang Hsiao-wen at the World Cup Finals at home and the Asian meet. “I have faced her twice and my gameplan has worked against her,” says Preeti.
“Before the CWG, I told myself that I would focus on the performance and not on the medal. It will be the same in Japan.”
Preeti’s resurgence is part of a revival in Indian women’s boxing. In Glasgow, the women’s team won five of the seven gold medals on offer, giving a fillip to the overall medal tally on the final day. The Asian Games has five weight categories, but navigating the draw and going deep to secure a medal will be a much bigger challenge.
For women’s team head coach Santiago Nieva, who rejoined Indian boxing earlier this year, it will also be an important test before the LA qualification cycle begins. In the last Asiad in Hangzhou, the women returned with only three medals, and no gold. Preeti was one of the boxers to win a bronze.
“They have done well, winning many gold medals against different types of opponents, in Asia, in Europe, and now in the Commonwealth countries. So, we know we have a strong team. At the highest level, the margin is very small, but our boxers are competitive all the way. That is good. We want to have the boxers in the final and on top of the podium,” says Nieva.
The promising Priya Ghanghas (60kg) and experienced Sakshi (51kg), who won gold medals in Glasgow, will face tougher tests. Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain, a seasoned champion, took silver in the previous edition and will have to work hard for a second successive podium finish in 75kg, while it will be interesting to see the performance of Parveen Hooda (65kg) on her comeback trail.
“Asian Games is a very strong competition and Asian teams are improving. The last couple of Asian Games, we have not won a gold medal. So that’s our goal,” said Nieva.
“The main thing is our boxers need to be good enough so that they can control whatever situation happens in the ring, and whatever style or different opponent that happens. We have made them aware of that, and then they can maintain their best boxing for longer periods of time. If we do the right things, we have a better chance to win. That’s the only thing I can see. I need to make sure we don’t fall into negative boxing that we lose control in the bout.”
For the Indian women, the Asian Games will be a test of their growing strength and depth against the best in Asia. After the gold rush in Glasgow and a period of rebuilding, the challenge will be to turn that momentum into medals on the biggest stage.
