When she visited her home last month, just before the start of the Indian women’s boxing national camp, Sakshi Chaudhary’s mother was shocked when she refused a helping of churma. The sugary mixture of jaggery, ghee and shredded roti might be a much-loved treat in nearly every home in Haryana, but Sakshi wanted nothing to do with it.
Over the next few days, Sakshi says her mother was almost reduced to tears as she waved away not just churma but any kind of carbohydrate from her plate.
“I’d be eating just one roti over the entire day. You know how families are. My mother would keep asking me to at least eat one more. And I’d say I can’t eat it. I think it broke her heart. But I couldn’t,” Sakshi tells Sportstar.
Sakshi’s goal was a simple one — she needed to lose three kilos. That would allow her to drop down from the women’s 54kg category in which she had competed for five years in order to take part in the selection trials to determine India’s boxing squad for the Commonwealth and Asian Games in the women’s 52kg category. Churma would have to wait. “ Bhuk toh thi par kuch aur bade chiz ke liye bhuk hai. (I had the hunger for something much bigger),” she says.
The meals skipped would eventually be more than worth it.
Sakshi did make weight for the selection trials, but didn’t just stop there. On Thursday, she beat two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen in the semifinals of the trials and followed that up with a win over Minakshi Hooda, the reigning World and Asian Champion in the women’s 48kg category, to book her ticket for both the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in Tokyo later this year.
“This is such an important result for me. I’ve been boxing since 2012. These will be the first Games that I’ve qualified for,” Sakshi says.
Sakshi has booked her ticket for both the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in Tokyo later this year. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Sakshi has booked her ticket for both the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in Tokyo later this year. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
It’s a result that only Sakshi’s most partisan supporters might have expected.
Until a few weeks back, the 25-year-old had been boxing in the women’s 54kg weight division. At the Indian women’s national camp in Patiala, she’d hoped to be selected for the squad that competed at the Asian Championships. By reaching the finals of the Asian Championships in Mongolia, she’d have earned a spot on the Indian team that would take part in CWG and Asiad.
But Sakshi wasn’t selected. In fact, she finished third in the assessment trials. When Priya Pawar, the boxer who was selected in the 54kg division, went on to win a gold medal in Mongolia, it seemed that the door for Sakshi had been shut.
It had seemed another case of Sakshi falling short where it matter.
Born and raised in the village of Dhanana, in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, she had been among the young girls inspired to take up the sport in 2012 following the interest generated by Vijender Singh’s campaign at the London Olympics.
Coached by Jagdish Singh, Vijender Singh’s coach at the Bhiwani Boxing Club, Sakshi soon earned the reputation as one of India’s most promising young boxers – she has three gold medals across the junior and youth World championships. But at the senior level, that vein of form ran out.
Struggle to break through
Although she’s had intermittent success — bronze at the 2021 Asian championships and gold at last year’s Boxing World Cup in New Delhi — in the 10 years that she has competed internationally, she’d never once made an Indian squad for a multi-game competition.
At the 2021 Asian Olympic qualifiers (where she’d competed in the 57kg category), she fell one win short of a ticket to the Tokyo Games. In 2022, she tore a muscle in her shoulder that stopped her from competing at the National championships, which in turn meant she wasn’t included in the national camp from which players were selected for CWG and Asian Games. Preeti Pawar went for the latter and won a bronze medal, which was enough to win her a quota for the Paris Olympics, once again leaving Sakshi waiting in the sidelines.
Throughout the roller coaster course her career has taken, Sakshi admits it’s not always been the easiest to stay upbeat.
“I had joined the Army through the sports quota, and I’m currently a havaldar. My younger brother later entered as an officer. There was one moment where he joked and told me he was my senior. It was a joke, but he quickly learned it had hurt me because my lack of a promotion was because I hadn’t got a major result. I sometimes wondered just what I had to do to perform where I needed to. Sometimes I would feel I didn’t want to do this any more,” she says.
It didn’t look like Sakshi’s season was going to turn around this year either. At the national championships in January at the start of the season, Sakshi didn’t even grab a medal, losing in the quarterfinals. Only national medallists were to be called to the national camp and subsequently compete for a place in the Indian team squad. Sakshi, though, was included at the last minute as a wild card.
Sakshi says she spoke to a psychologist at that time. “I worked a lot on my mentality at that time. I was too caught up about my results, and as a result of that, I was trying too hard and boxing emotionally. I was hyperreacting to situations. Slowly, I started trying to play with calmness,” she says.
Slow change
Results didn’t come right away. In fact, she only finished third in the assessment trials for the 54kg category, which were won by Priya. And when the camp concluded, Priya left to compete at the Asian Championships, and Sakshi returned home.
In that first visit, she did eat and drink as she normally did. A few days later she went to the Army Sports Institute in Pune.
That’s when a window opened up for Sakshi. While Priya had won gold in Mongolia, sealing the 54kg spot for the Commonwealth and Asian Games, Nikhat Zareen had fallen short, losing in the semifinals of the women’s 51kg division.
“At that moment I realised I still had a chance to make it,” she says.
She ran the idea past her coaches – Chhote Lal Yadav and Ahteshamuddin – both of whom were in favour. “Of course you can, Tiger! We will beat everyone,” Chhotey Lal Yadav told her.
The first task was making weight. At this time, Sakshi weighed around 56kg, but she managed to cut down to 51 kg despite her mother's misgivings with an austere diet and physical training. “It wasn’t easy, but it was a do-or-die situation for me,” she says.
The harder part was coming through the trials. While both Nikhat and Minakshi had far superior career records, Sakshi felt she had done her homework against both. The fact that the trials were to be conducted solely through a single bout instead of the assessment format, as well as the fact that none of the boxers had faced each other, also worked to Sakshi’s advantage.
“I’ve never boxed against either Nikhat or Minakshi, but I knew how they boxed. So how we boxed on the day was going to decide the winner. Nikhat likes to box inside close range, and I understood I had to box her from a long distance. I made sure I didn’t come close to her. It was a close bout (Sakshi won by a 4-1 split decision), but I think my strategy was correct. In the final, I knew Minakshi is a very strong counter-puncher, so I made sure to box as defensively as possible,” she says.
While her preparation and execution had been sound, Sakshi says what also worked for her was her change in mindset. “Although I knew how important these bouts were for me, I managed to stop thinking about the result while I was competing. I was just thinking I had to do my best in the ring,” she says.
Although she has her tickets to the Commonwealth and Asian Games booked, Sakshi isn’t allowing herself to relax anytime soon. “It’s not enough to qualify for these Games. I want to win a gold medal in both. I have to work hard and I have to improve on my technique. I’ll be looking at videos of my technique and working with the coaches. I have to give my complete effort,” she says.
This also means that Sakshi will be continuing to watch what she eats for the next several months as she looks to stay inside the 51kg weight limit. This won’t be a problem.
“ Churma tastes good, but it won'’ feel as good as a Commonwealth Games or Asian Games gold around my neck,” she says.
Published on May 15, 2026