Varanasi Boxing Coach Chhotelal Yadav Selected for Dronacharya Honour

VARANASI: A coach from Kashi whose career moved from the ring to the corner has been selected for one of Indian sport’s leading coaching honours.

Chhotelal Yadav, a Varanasi resident associated with the Kandwa Pokhra and Pahari Gate area, is set to receive Dronacharya recognition for his contribution to boxing. Yadav is best known nationally for his work with six-time world champion M C Mary Kom, but his local reputation was built through years spent developing boxers away from television cameras.

Before coaching, Yadav competed as a boxer and became a national champion. That experience informed a training career in which he rose to serve with India’s women’s boxing setup and worked as Mary Kom’s personal coach. He also holds an AIBA two-star coaching qualification, a credential reflecting formal technical training in the sport.

News of the selection brought congratulatory messages from Varanasi’s sporting community. His name had previously been proposed for the award, including during the 2019–20 period, according to the local report. The present selection therefore carries the weight of a long wait as well as recognition of results.

The Dronacharya Award was instituted in 1985 to recognise coaches who help athletes reach sustained high performance. Formal categories and prize details are determined by the government’s award notification; until the presentation and citation are published, it is prudent not to guess the precise category attached to Yadav’s name.

Coaching at elite level is often reduced to a medal photo, yet much of the work is repetitive and private: correcting balance, studying an opponent, managing a weight cut safely and judging when an athlete needs rest rather than another round. With young boxers, the responsibility is larger. A good coach must protect health, insist on proper equipment and create a training culture in which injury is reported early.

Yadav’s journey also matters to Varanasi because the city’s sporting identity is broader than wrestling akharas. Boxing programmes need rings, qualified officials, medical safeguards and a competitive calendar. Recognition for a local coach can help attract attention to those needs, but it should not be mistaken for investment by itself.

The most useful celebration would connect his experience to the next generation: structured clinics for school and district coaches, recorded technical sessions and mentorship for women entering coaching. Those steps would turn an individual honour into shared capacity.

For now, Kashi has reason to applaud a trainer whose work has travelled from a neighbourhood gym to the highest level of women’s boxing. The award ceremony will provide the formal moment. The achievement was built during the long, unglamorous hours before it.