Jaismine Lamboria and Asian Games 2026: Why the World Champion Isn't Competing

Jaismine is not at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, and it has nothing to do with form or selection trials. The women's 57kg category, in which she is the reigning world champion, is simply absent from the Asian Games boxing programme this time. Women's boxing at Aichi-Nagoya features categories such as 51kg, 54kg, 60kg, 65kg and 75kg, but not 57kg. Even Chinese Taipei's Lin Yu-ting, who won 57kg gold at Hangzhou 2023, moved up to compete in the 60kg category in Nagoya.

Under the Boxing Federation of India's selection policy, reaching the final of the 2026 Asian Boxing Championships in Ulaanbaatar earned direct qualification for the Commonwealth Games and, in weight classes on the Asian Games programme, for the Asian Games too. Jaismine reached the 57kg final there, which secured her Commonwealth Games spot, but with no 57kg event in Nagoya, there was no Asian Games place to win. The Commonwealth Games therefore became the biggest event of her year.

It is a quirk of the weight-category programme rather than any setback for Jaismine. Read our complete guide to Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya, Japan and see where to watch Asian Games 2026 live in India.

Jaismine Lamboria is an Indian boxer who competes in the 57kg (featherweight) category and serves as a Naib Subedar in the Indian Army. She comes from Bhiwani, Haryana, a town often called India's "Mini Cuba" for its boxing tradition, and her family's own boxing history runs deep: it includes Hawa Singh, who won heavyweight gold at the 1966 and 1970 Asian Games and is usually described as her great-grandfather.

Her style is built around superior reach, long-range jabs and sharp footwork, traits that make her one of the hardest boxers in her category to get close to. In 2022 she became the first female boxer inducted into the Indian Army, joining the Corps of Military Police as a Havildar. She was later promoted to Naib Subedar and awarded the Sena Medal in January 2026 following her World Championships success.

Jaismine Lamboria was born on 30 August 2001 in Bhiwani, Haryana. Her father worked as a home guard and her mother is a homemaker. She was drawn to boxing after watching her uncles, Sandeep Singh and Parvinder Singh, both former national-level boxers, train and win medals, and she began her training under them in Bhiwani. She later studied for a Bachelor of Physical Education at Lovely Professional University, winning titles at the All India Inter-University Boxing Championships.

She made her senior debut at the 2021 Boxam International tournament, winning silver, and added bronze at the 2021 Asian Championships in Dubai in the 57kg division the same year. She also beat Tokyo Olympian and World Championships bronze medallist Simranjeet Kaur, first at the 2021 nationals and then again in the trials for the 2022 World Championships.

Jaismine won bronze in the women's 60kg (lightweight) category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. With Parveen Hooda holding the 57kg spot at the time, Jaismine moved up to 60kg for the 2022 Asian Games, delayed to 2023 and held in Hangzhou. She beat Saudi Arabia's Hadeel Ghazwan in her opening bout but lost her quarter-final to North Korea's Won Un-gyong, who went on to win silver, after the referee stopped the contest.

Her route back to the Olympic weight category came in unusual fashion. After India had to surrender the 57kg Paris quota won by Parveen Hooda due to whereabouts failures, Jaismine won three straight bouts at the second world qualifying tournament in Bangkok to reclaim the spot for India, earning her place at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Jaismine's Olympic debut at Paris 2024 ended in her opening bout, where she lost to the Philippines' Nesthy Petecio, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist who went on to win bronze at Paris 2024. Even so, she has spoken about the experience as invaluable, saying she learned a lot watching the best fighters in the world compete, with Los Angeles 2028 already on her mind as the bigger long-term goal.

Jaismine's biggest breakthrough came in September 2025 at the inaugural World Boxing Championships in Liverpool. She beat Pan American Games champion Jucielen Romeu of Brazil 5-0 and the reigning U-22 Asian champion Khumorabonu Mamajonova of Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals, then Venezuela's Omailyn Alcala 5-0 in the semi-final. In the 57kg final she beat Paris Olympic silver medallist Julia Szeremeta of Poland 4-1 on a split decision, becoming India's first gold medallist at the World Boxing Championships under the sport's new governing body. That year she also won gold at the World Boxing Cup in Astana and at the World Boxing Cup Finals in Greater Noida.

In 2026 she reached the final of the Asian Boxing Championships in Ulaanbaatar despite running a high fever from her first bout, winning a close 3-2 semi-final before losing the final to Thailand's Punrawee Ruenros and taking silver. Illness struck again after she returned home, and she was hospitalised and missed India's exposure camp in the Czech Republic, resuming training only on 1 July, less than a month before the Commonwealth Games.

In Glasgow she beat England's Elise Glynn 4-1 in the quarter-final, stopped Lesotho's Rapelang Maselela in the second round of the semi-final, and beat Northern Ireland's defending champion Michaela Walsh 5-0 in the final on 1 August to win her first Commonwealth gold, upgrading her 2022 bronze. She was then chosen as India's flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.

• India's first gold medallist at the World Boxing Championships under the sport's new governing body (2025 Liverpool, 57kg)
• Commonwealth Games gold medallist (2026 Glasgow), upgrading her 2022 bronze, and India's flag-bearer at the closing ceremony
• First female boxer inducted into the Indian Army (2022), later promoted to Naib Subedar
• Awarded the Sena Medal in January 2026
• From a family whose boxing legacy includes two-time Asian Games gold medallist Hawa Singh (1966, 1970)

Jaismine Lamboria carries a boxing lineage that stretches back to Hawa Singh's Asian Games golds in the 1960s and 1970, and she has spent the last two years turning that legacy into her own. A world title and a Commonwealth gold make this the biggest stretch of her career so far, even with her weight category sitting outside the Asian Games 2026 programme.

For her full profile, medal record and competition history, see Jaismine Lamboria on Wikipedia.