The recent upsurge in India’s medal tally continued at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, this time inside the ring with all three finalists in action — Lovlina Borgohain, Parveen Hooda and Ankush Panghal — winning their respective bouts to add three more gold and take the country to the top of boxing medal tally on Friday.

The most experienced of them, Lovlina, began the charge with a golden present to herself and the country on her birthday, dominating across all three rounds against China’s reigning Asian champion Ziyi Bao in the 75kg for a 5-0 win. Lovlina became only the second Indian woman boxer to win an Asian Games gold, after Mary Kom, but she was not to be the only one at this edition.

“There was a time when I thought of giving up boxing but then decided against it. Today it feels surreal to win a gold here. Being compared to a legend like Mary Kom is a motivation and I never thought I would gift myself and the country a gold, this one’s very special,” Lovlina said.

Two bouts later, Parveen completed her own redemption arc with a 3-2 win against Paris Olympic bronze medallist and current Asian champion Chen Nien-chin of Taiwan in the 65kg final. Having won bronze last time around only to see it taken away due to a whereabouts clause failure ban, Parveen’s gold was a vindication of both her mental and physical tenacity.

Ankush’s 4-0 win against Korea’s Kim Minseong in the 80kg later in the day capped a fruitful outing for the boxing contingent that finished with three gold and as many bronze.

“When the whereabouts failure thing happened, mentally I was shattered. I thought I had to start from zero but then I reset my mind to think that if didn’t make a comeback, I will regret my whole life that one small mistake cost me everything. A that moment I decided that I had to earn back everything I had, with interest,” an ecstatic Parveen said.

With the Haryana State government promising a deputy director’s post for winning gold, that was the sound Parveen kept telling herself to punch her way through to the title. “This is my second coming and I am stronger than ever before mentally, I am more mature and I handle my things now. I am not dependent on anyone. I have more confidence and belief in my skills. Earlier, I would get nervous if I lost a round; now I feel I can handle anything,” she added.

Indian athletics may have had its ups and downs over years but the women quartermilers, by and large, have been impressive and among the medals within the continent. The 4x400m relay team has been the country’s most reliable medal prospect at the Asian Games, the women winning gold consecutively from 2006 to 2018 before bagging silver last time around.

Two of the four members of that side, unsurprisingly, carried that hurt for three years but were the enablers of an exceptional performance to regain the top spot, fending stiff challenge from China and Bahrain on Tuesday.

“Vithya [Ramraj] and I were part of the team last time and we got a silver. We had spoken about returning only with gold next time. That has been the only motivation for the last three years. When I went back with a silver last time, my father said, ‘maza nahi aya’. I am sure this time he will be happy (laughs),” Prachi Chaudhary said.

It was the laugh of a champion from Saharanpur who had kept her promise to self. “Mostly, Indian girls have got relay gold, and we have done it again. I am sure it will be an inspiration to the juniors to continue this and for us to keep getting better,” she added.

Vithya echoed the inspiration part. Having already clinched a silver and bronze here, the gold was the icing on the cake for her. “It’s for all the women out there. On the track, it’s the Indian women who have won more medals. It shows there is no limit to what we can do. Everyone thought that an Indian cannot go below 55 seconds in 400m hurdles, but I managed it. Now, the target is sub-54. If others can do it, we can too,” she said with optimism.

That, however, came after the race. On the track, Vithya was a bundle of nerves with a million thoughts vying for space. “Before my turn, I was waiting at the starting line for almost 2.5-3 minutes for the first three legs. There was so much going through my mind. I didn’t know what to do, there was so much pressure. I was thinking that I was running the last leg and that anything could happen… I was praying, thinking about my coach, watching the screen. When Prachi came on the straight, they kept calling me to take position but I was in my zone. They had to pull me into position.”

Clearly, the mind was still running at a mile a minute. “At around the 300m mark and trailing the Chinese runner, I was thinking whether I should try and go past her. ‘Do I have the capability to finish the race, should I do it or not?’ I remembered my coach asking me to maintain the pace till the last 100m and go all out, so that’s what I did,” Vithya finally stopped to catch her breath. The celebrations, however, continued.