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Commonwealth Games 2026 gold medallist Arundhati Choudhary hopes her maiden CWG gold will inspire young athletes in Rajasthan to pursue sports and challenge long-standing perceptions about the state's sporting talent.
Kota-born Arundhati produced a dominant display in the women's 70kg final, defeating England's Chantelle Reid 5-0 by unanimous decision to secure one of India's seven boxing gold medals at the Games. Speaking to ANI, Arundhati said her CWG gold medal could challenge stereotypes about Rajasthan's sporting talent and inspire young athletes from the state to pursue sports and achieve success. "When the name of Rajasthan is mentioned, everyone thinks that they are very weak, their players are not so good, they will not perform well. But now I feel that this gold of mine will become a very big motivation for the children of Rajasthan to move forward and people from other states will also remain quiet thinking that there is a Commonwealth Gold here too," she said. Arundhati Choudhary expressed pride in winning gold at her maiden Commonwealth Games medal. She credited her father for guiding her towards boxing and coach Ashok Gautam for helping shape her career after she took up the sport in 2016. "I am feeling very proud that this was my first Commonwealth Games and I got gold in the very first games, so it is a very good thing. I had a bit of a fighting nature from the beginning, and it was a bit wrong that such anger and fighting in a child is not good, but my father showed the right path, and he put me into boxing. Although being from Kota, he wanted me to do IIT, but somewhere he felt that maybe boxing would be right for me because of my nature. So in 2016, I started boxing and under the guidance of coach Ashok Gautam, I walked on that path and made my career in boxing," she said. India scripted history by delivering the greatest boxing performance by any nation in Commonwealth Games history, topping the medal standings with seven gold and three silver medals. The 10-medal haul surpassed the previous record of six boxing gold medals jointly held by England (1934 and 2018) and Canada (1986). Apart from Arundhati, India's gold medals came through Sachin Siwach, Jaismine Lamboria, Preeti Pawar, Sakshi Chaudhary, Priya Ghanghas and Ankush Panghal. Olympic medallist Lovlina Borgohain, Narender Berwal and Jadumani Singh added silver medals to complete the country's historic tally. (ANI)
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