LUCKNOW: Even while watching ace boxer Lovlina Borgohain collect her bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Chhote Lal Yadav, a coach of the Indian boxing contingent then, had a bigger target. He had immense satisfaction in guiding four of his trainees — Sakshi Chaudhary, Preeti Pawar, Jaismine Lamboria and Arundhati Choudhary — to gold medals at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Chhote Lal was the personal coach of Mary Kom, India’s first woman boxer to win an Olympic medal, for seven years until 2022. That led to a boxing career that spanned from 2000 to 2012, with medals at Asian Cadet and South Asian Games, a silver at the World Military Championships, and appearances at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. He topped the NIS diploma course in Patiala in 2014, then joined Olympic Gold Quest as a personal coach. Between 2015 and 2022 he mentored Mary Kom and others, guiding the ace boxer to Asian gold, World Championship success and Olympic qualification.
He was the brain behind women being inducted in the Army, especially at the Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune, with the support of Col Manoj Kumar. After months of physical training and tests in Pune, then coach Sahu Birajdhar, a former boxer, recognised what others hadn’t. “Your body is for boxing. Education and excellence followed.
“Winning a semi-final or final often depends on small mental margins, including belief, focus, and the ability to impose your plan under pressure,” he said.
