NEW DELHI: As Parveen Hooda unleashes fury inside the ring, she is fighting battles far beyond it. The Rohtak boxer is punching at more than an opponent now. Every counter carries the weight of a medal taken away, an Olympic dream that vanished, and a family waiting for relief. The road here has been paved with setbacks, sacrifice and a hunger for redemption.Three years ago, Parveen won bronze at the Hangzhou Games. Then came the whereabouts failure, a 22-month suspension and the stripping of her medal. Paris Olympics slipped away. Her Glasgow CWG return in July-Aug ended in a quarterfinal defeat. Now, in Aichi-Nagoya, she has fought her way back to the Asian Games final, beating China’s Li Shu 5-0 in the 65kg semifinal.A silver is assured. But Parveen is not looking back. She wants gold — and full redemption.Her fight has always extended beyond the ring. Her father, Lakhpat Hooda, has been battling cancer for four years and is also a heart patient. Her mother, Neelam Devi, sells buffalo milk to keep the household running, while Parveen’s 20-year-old younger brother is studying. An ITBP assistant sub-inspector, Parveen has become the family’s principal breadwinner, using her boxing earnings and salary for her father’s treatment.“Her father would be super proud of her achievement, as is her mother. Parveen takes care of every need of the family,” her childhood coach Sudhir Hooda told TOI. “She has been funding her father’s medical treatment with cash awards from boxing and her ITBP income.”Hooda first saw Parveen in April 2010. She was in class five, barely 22kg, and came from a family that struggled to afford boxing nutrition. “I became the village sarpanch and opened an academy in Rohtak to keep youngsters away from drugs and crime, offering 80 children free coaching, milk and diet. Parveen was one of the brightest.”Parveen’s rise was swift as she won state and national sub-junior gold in 2012. After a long period when competitions were disrupted (Indian Boxing Federation was suspended from 2012-2016), she broke into the youth ranks in 2017 and entered the national camp in 2018. South Asian Games gold followed in 2019, then Asian Championships gold and Worlds bronze in 2022.Against Li in Nishio, she stayed composed, picking her counters and controlling distance. She now faces Chinese Taipei’s Paris Olympic bronze medallist Chen Nien-chin for gold. “I hope for the gold, and I will give my best to take it,” she said afterwards. Parveen is only the third Indian woman to reach an Asian Games final, after Mary Kom (gold 2014) and Lovlina Borgohain (silver 2023).Ankush Panghal provided another headline, stunning reigning 75kg world champion Fazliddin Erkinboev of Uzbekistan 4-1 in the 80kg semifinal. After dropping the opening round, Ankush changed gears, attacked the body and dominated the finish. He is India’s first male Asian Games finalist since Amit Panghal in 2018.Narender Berwal secured bronze after a 0-5 loss to reigning world champion Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan in the +90kg semifinal. It is his second straight Asian Games bronze.With Parveen and Ankush chasing gold, India has six medals assured from 11 entries. Three more semifinal bouts — Priya Ghanghas, Kapil Pokhariya and Lovlina Borgohain — await on Wednesday, raising hopes of an even bigger Indian medal haul.
