'Daring' Preeti Sai Pawar takes aim at Asian Games after World Championship learnings

Most choose their own destiny. For some, it’s the other way around. For boxer Preeti Sai Pawar, it’s definitely the latter.

Four Indian boxers — Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghangas and Saweety Boora — won gold at the recently-concluded World Championship in New Delhi. There’s one who didn’t win a medal but made the boxing world sit up and take notice.

Preeti’s (54kg) IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship campaign ended with a narrow defeat to Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong (who lost the World Championship final to Zareen in 2022) in the Round of 16. But it wasn’t before she handed a stunning defeat to 2022 silver medallist and World No 2 Perijoc Lacramioara (4-3) in the second round after a bout review.

While the Romanian suffered a setback, the pugilist from Bhiwani enjoyed one of the highs of her nascent career, made extra special by the surprising turn her life has taken in the last five years.

At 14, in eighth standard, Preeti loved studying and sports was nowhere in the picture. That changed when her father, Somveer Sai Pawar, assistant sub-inspector in Haryana Police, and uncle Vinod Sai Pawar, a boxing coach, motivated her to take up boxing inspired by the events around them.

“Sports wasn’t my priority. I was good in my studies and always got positions in my classes. I was also very active in co-curricular activities,” Preeti tells Firstpost. “I never thought that I will be a sportsperson, but my father and uncle motivated me to enter this field. In the beginning, I told them that I cannot do this and won’t become a boxer but slowly after I started competing and training, my interest in boxing rose and then I continued with the sport.”

Another win for INDIA