The Commonwealth Games 2026 will be remembered as a landmark edition for Indian boxing.
A record haul of 10 medals, including an unprecedented seven gold, made India the first nation to win seven boxing titles at a single edition of the Commonwealth Games.
Yet among the seven Indian boxers crowned champions at Glasgow 2026, Sakshi Chaudhary‘s journey stood apart.
Sakshi did not simply win the women’s 51kg title. She first had to earn the right to compete in Glasgow by defeating a former and a reigning world boxing champion in the national trials before producing one of the most commanding performances of the tournament.
Her toughest contests, in many ways, came before the Commonwealth Games had even begun.
Dropping down from her preferred 54kg category, Sakshi Chaudhary entered the selection trials in Patiala in May knowing there would be no easy route into the Indian boxing team.
In the semi-finals, she stunned two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen 4-1, ending the former world No. 1’s hopes of defending the CWG title she had won at Birmingham 2022.
Awaiting her in the final was reigning 48kg world champion Minakshi Hooda, who had herself beaten former world champion and Birmingham gold medallist Nitu Ghanghas.
Sakshi left no doubt.
She defeated Minakshi 5-0 to book her place on the plane to Glasgow.
“There was a lot of pressure,” Sakshi’s coach Chhote Lal told Ṭhe New Indian Express. “She had beaten Nikhat not so long ago, so people had high expectations.”
The coach, who trains Sakshi at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, believed the 25-year-old boxer always possessed the ability to compete with the world’s best.
“She is very hard-working. She had joined ASI when her game was down around 2021-22. But I knew she had the potential.”
If the trials announced Sakshi Chaudhary’s arrival, the Commonwealth Games confirmed it.
She swept through the tournament without conceding a single bout on the judges’ scorecards.
The Indian opened with a unanimous 5-0 win over Botswana’s Lethabo Modukanele before repeating the scoreline against Northern Ireland’s Caitlin Fryers in the quarter-finals and Canada’s Amber-Jane Wall in the semi-finals.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/sakshi-chaudhary-commonwealth-games-2026-boxing-gold-medal-campaign
