Newly-appointed Indian women’s boxing team head coach Santiago Nieva is confident that he can help the country’s female boxers punch above their weight and achieve international success, with the ultimate focus being Olympic glory at Los Angeles 2028.
Nieva, a former high performance director of Indian boxing from 2017 to 2021, recently served as head coach of Boxing Australia’s high-performance unit. “I’m super excited to be back. I’ve had five great years in India and when the opportunity came, I had to come back with the aim of doing a great job for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” Nieva told mid-day on Tuesday.
Indian boxers have it good
In Australia, things were quite different, revealed Nieva. “The biggest difference between the boxing system in India and Australia is that there we don’t have the team with us full time as many boxers, who are not medal prospects, have to work or study on the side because they don’t get paid or don’t get the kind of support that Indian boxers get,” said Nieva, adding that a lot has changed for the better in the Indian system since he was here. “The boxing programme in India is a lot more developed now than it was in 2017 when I was here. In Patiala, the boxing hall, the S&C [strength and conditioning] system, the recovery facilities, the dining hall, everything is a lot more developed now and more suited to the needs of a High Performance Centre. I can’t wait to get there and start working,” he added.
In his previous stint here, Nieva helped Amit Panghal bag a historic silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in Yekaterinburg in Russia, where Manish Kaushik also bagged a bronze. Nieva also oversaw Lovlina Borgohain bag a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“This Indian women’s team looks super strong. At the Boxing World Cup Finals [in Greater Noida earlier this month] most of the girls won gold medals [seven gold]. At the World Championships [in Liverpool earlier this year] also they won medals [two gold, one silver, one bronze] This is one of the strongest women’s boxing teams in the world. It’s just that they have done well in the non-Olympic weight categories, so we have to work on succeeding in the Olympic weight categories,” said Nieva.
Next year, crucial
Speaking of the immediate challenges at hand, Nieva said that next year will be a crucial one in this Olympic cycle. “We will be tested early next year at the Asian Championships [March 28 to April 11 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia] followed by the Commonwealth Games [July 23 to August 2 in Glasgow, Scotland] and the Asian Games [September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan]. Indian boxers have always had great results at the CWG and Asian Games from where many have qualified for the Olympics. Our aim is to be in the finals of whatever competitions we’re in. Historically, India have three Olympic boxing medals, all bronze [Vijender Singh at Beijing 2008, Mary Kom at London 2012, and Lovlina at Tokyo 2020]. The aim this time is much higher. We don’t just want multiple medals, we are also aiming for the highest — an Olympic gold medal. It will be tough, but we’re confident that if we start working hard now, Indian women’s boxing can make history at LA 2028.”
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