'2026 is very important year', says Nikhat Zareen as Indian women boxers train hard in Patiala ahead of Asian Games

Nikhat Zareen, Parveen Hooda, Minakshi Hooda part of the national camp being organised at NSNIS Patiala.

Fresh from impressive performances at the World Boxing Cup Finals at Greater Noida in November 2025, Indian women pugilists are targeting a rich medal haul at the upcoming Asian Boxing Championships at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia from March 28 to April 11, 2026 in the build-up to the Asian Games later this year.

Led by Nikhat Zareen (51kg) and Jaismine Lamboria (57kg), the Indian women boxers ruled the show at the World Boxing Cup Finals, winning 7 out of the 10 possible gold medals.

The other boxers who won gold medals were Minakshi Hooda (48kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Parveen Hooda (60kg), Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) and Nupur Sheoran (80+kg).

Right now these pugilists are sweating it out at the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports (NSNIS) Patiala as part of the national camp supported under the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Annual Calendar for Training & Competition (ACTC) in collaboration with the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).

Proving her doubters wrong, Nikhat made a comeback from six-month injury layoff due to meniscus tear at the 2025 World Championship in Liverpool, ending as a quarter-finalist after her disappointment at the Paris 2024 Olympics. But the gold at World Boxing Cup Finals gave her the much-needed morale booster.

“I was very happy to end the year 2025 with a gold medal in November. Further, I began the new year on a winning note, emerging as the national champion with my good performance at the Senior Nationals. So, it gives me immense pleasure that I am getting back in form and delivering consistently.

2026 is a very important year and hopefully I will win gold in all the important events lined up this year to make India proud,” Nikhat told SAI Media.

Sparring with male boxers and making crucial changes to her technique has paid her good dividends as she trains her eyes on multi-discipline events like the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (July 23 to August 2, 2026) and Asian Games in Aichi Nagoya, Japan (September 19 to October 4, 2026).

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“I have worked on my past mistakes. I have also sparred with different style of boxers in the last few months. After Paris 2024 when I made my return after injury, I was training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, I was sparring with junior boxers and male boxers, in particular and that has helped me a lot.

So, I discuss about my mistakes with coaches regularly and work on different aspects of my boxing and that has helped improve my results,” explained the 29-year-old, who is supported under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).

Also Read: BOXAM Elite International 2026: Lovlina Borgohain, Arundhati Choudhary lead India’s nine-gold medal run in Spain

Parveen Hooda, who has previously won gold in Asian Championships and a bronze in the World Championships, said that defeating Poland’s World Championships silver medallist Aneta Rygielska in the semi-finals and Olympian Ayaka Taguchi of Japan in the final was the highlight of her World Boxing Cup Finals campaign.

“World Cup Finals was my comeback event as I had participated in an international level tournament after a long time due to injury. My opponents in the event were very accomplished boxers so, the event was very good for me,” Parveen told SAI Media.

Parveen further insisted that onboarding of Argentine-born Swede Santiago Nieva as the head coach for women’s boxing team has also improved her overall performance. Nieva was the former High Performance Director for Indian boxing from 2017 to 2021.

“Santiago sir’s periodisation plans and his emphasis on fitness and technique has been very useful for not only me but other female boxers as well. It is helping improve our confidence levels. I have also worked on my strength.

Earlier, I felt my punches didn’t have the desirable power so I have been working on that dimension as well with the coach and it is better now.

Next month we have the Asian Championships and later this year we have the Commonwealth and Asian Games, so we have to reach peak performance around that time, which is part of our plan,” the 25-year-old explained.

World Champion in 48kg category, Minakshi Hooda, 24, is working on her footwork to win gold at the upcoming international events. Minakshi had registered the first gold for India in the World Boxing Cup Finals after beating Uzbekistan’s Fozilova Farzona.

“Last year I played a lot of international events and clinched gold in many of them. As you are aware there are big events like Asian Games coming up later this year so I am working on my footwork and my leg strength. My natural game is to tire out my opponents in the ring by moving around.

So, footwork becomes crucial as I have to finish three rounds without giving the chance to my rival to score. With the new coach and change in training regime I am confident of clinching a medal at the Asian Games in Japan,” Minakshi told SAI Media.

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