Chhote Lal Yadav awarded Dronacharya for work with Mary Kom, Jaismine and Army boxers
Chhote Lal Yadav received the Dronacharya Award in New Delhi on August 20, 2026, in recognition of his coaching work with boxers including M.C. Mary Kom and Jaismine Lamboria. The honour follows a coaching career that began after an injury ended his time as a competitor.
His coaching résumé includes guiding Mary Kom’s return to top-level success, converting Jaismine Lamboria into a world champion and overseeing Commonwealth Games gold medals for Sakshi Chaudhary and Arundhati Choudhary; that trajectory began when injury forced him from the ring to the coaching corner. As a boxer, Chhote Lal was part of the national setup from 2001 to 2012 before a back and spinal injury in 2012 ended his Olympic hopes and pushed him toward coaching.
His initial foray into coaching came in 2012 when he was asked to help Mary Kom for 15-20 days; he completed a coaching diploma at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, in 2014 and by 2017 was working with Mary Kom full-time. He was part of the national camp as a coach from 2017 to 2022 before moving in 2022 to lead the Army’s women’s boxing programme.
On taking over Mary Kom’s preparations he said, “She was a champion before I started training her. My biggest challenge was how to keep a celebrity and champion a champion,” he recalled, and began experimenting with what he termed “smart training,” tailoring workload to age and physical needs. “It was a challenge for me at that time, I was not sure if it would work, but it did.” He also stated his approach in simple terms: “I make a personalised training programme for every boxer,” he said.
The partnership with Mary Kom produced immediate results in 2017: she won the Asian Championships, a Commonwealth Games gold and another World Championships gold that year, and also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Chhote Lal cited the 2017 Asian Championships as a standout moment: “Since the 2014 Asian Games gold, Mary hadn’t won anything in a big tournament and hadn’t qualified for the Olympics either. So to win that made me very happy.”
After joining the Army programme he recruited Jaismine first and later Sakshi Chaudhary and Arundhati Choudhary, building a group of young women boxers. Jaismine became a World champion last year, while Sakshi and Arundhati won Commonwealth Games golds earlier this month. On his methods, Jaismine said: “Chhote sir knows everything about women’s boxing — how to train, how to recover. He is very open-minded, so we are able to share things with him comfortably.”
Jaismine described the practical changes he made during her difficult phase after missing the Paris Olympics: “He makes personalised programmes for everyone. If he doesn’t know something, he doesn’t assert control. He will take you to the expert in that subject. And he always takes a stand for us.” She added, “He has a huge role in my World Championship title. He worked on my technical and strength training after the Paris Olympics. He changed my game with strength,” she said.
Accepting the Dronacharya, Chhote Lal expressed satisfaction but set a clear objective for the next major target: “I am very happy but I don’t have to stop here. I need to work harder. My aim is that my boxers win 2-3 gold medals at the LA Olympics,” he told PTI.
