Every Army woman boxer in Glasgow came home with gold

Four Indian Army women boxers stepped into the ring at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow. All four walked out as champions. Naib Subedar Preeti Pawar in the 54 kg category, Naib Subedar Jaismine Lamboria in 57 kg, Havildar Sakshi Chaudhary in 51 kg and Havildar Arundhati Choudhary in 70 kg each won gold, a clean sweep that anchored the most successful boxing campaign India has ever had at the Games.

India finished the Games fourth in the standings with 39 medals, made up of 13 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze. Boxing delivered 10 of those medals, including seven golds, and no country has ever won more boxing golds at a single edition of the Commonwealth Games. Five of the seven were won by women.

Bhiwani, Kota and a Corps of Military Police connection

The fifth women's gold went to Priya Ghanghas in the 60 kg category. Sachin Siwach took the men's 60 kg title and Ankush Panghal the men's 80 kg, while Lovlina Borgohain, Jadumani Singh Mandengbam and Narender Berwal returned with silver. The previous best mark of six golds was set by England at London 1934, matched by Canada at Edinburgh 1986 and by England again at Gold Coast 2018.

All four Army gold medallists are from the Corps of Military Police, and joined as sportspersons after recruitment into the rank and file was opened for women under the Agnipath scheme. Preeti, Jaismine and Sakshi are all from Bhiwani in Haryana, while Arundhati is from Rajasthan but trained in Bhiwani, the town that produced Vijender Singh and Akhil Kumar.

Each arrived by a different route. Jaismine came to Glasgow as a world champion, having won the 57 kg title at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool in 2025, and was awarded the Sena Medal in January 2026. In the final she beat Northern Ireland's Michaela Walsh, the defending champion from Birmingham 2022. Afterwards she said that inside the ring they fight for their countries, but "outside the ring we are friends".

Sakshi Chaudhary's gold was built on a gamble. On the advice of her coaches at the Army institute in Pune, she dropped from 54 kg to 51 kg and then beat two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen and reigning 48 kg world champion Minakshi Hooda in the national trials to earn her place. In the final she ended England teenager Ruby White's 68-fight winning streak.

Arundhati Choudhary knocked out defending champion Rosie Eccles of Wales in the semi-final before beating England's Chantelle Reid on all five cards in the final. She joined the Army in 2022 as a direct entry Havildar in the Corps of Military Police under the Mission Olympic Programme, having come back from a head injury that hospitalised her for nearly a month and later from wrist surgery. Preeti Pawar, an Asian Games bronze medallist, opened India's gold rush with a unanimous win over Canada's Scarlett Delgado. According to the Army, she was the first woman athlete to be directly inducted as a Junior Commissioned Officer.

A 20-member contingent, 16 medals

According to figures shared by the Indian Army, its 20-member contingent returned with 16 medals, comprising eight gold, seven silver and one bronze, which is 41% of India's total tally. In boxing alone, the Army said 11 of its boxers competed, eight won medals, and the final count of six gold and two silver reflected "unmatched dedication, discipline, and fighting spirit".

The rest of the contingent contributed across five more disciplines. Harsh Singh won gold in the men's 60 kg judo, one of India's first two Commonwealth Games judo golds alongside Asmita Dey. Soman Rana took gold in the men's F57 shot put with Shubham Juyal completing an Indian one-two. Gulveer Singh won silver in the 10,000 m and bronze in the 5,000 m to become the first Indian track and field athlete to win two individual medals at a single Commonwealth Games, while Sarvesh Anil Kushare of the Regiment of Artillery took India's first Commonwealth Games silver in the men's high jump and weightlifter Valluri Ajaya Babu set a Games snatch record of 149 kg. Neeraj Chopra, who holds an honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army, added javelin silver. Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan and Yashas Palaksha both reached the men's 400 m hurdles final, finishing seventh and eighth.

What is the Mission Olympics programme that trains these boxers

Mission Olympics is the Indian Army's talent identification and training scheme for elite sport. Selected athletes train at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, run in collaboration with the Sports Authority of India. The practical effect is that an athlete gets a salary, a rank and full-time access to coaching, physiotherapy and competition without needing outside sponsorship. For young women from small towns, that removes the financial argument families often make against a sporting career.

What Glasgow sets up next

Jaismine Lamboria carried the Tricolour at the closing ceremony, where the Commonwealth Flag was handed over to India ahead of Ahmedabad hosting the 2030 Games. Eight of India's 13 golds in Glasgow were won by women. With the Asian Games to follow, the depth this quartet has shown in the 51 kg to 70 kg range gives Indian boxing a settled core to build on rather than a one-off haul to celebrate.