By Prarthana Hazarika
Guwahati, Sept 8: As India prepares for one of the toughest challenges in world boxing, women’s national coach Santiago Nieva believes the country’s boxers are ready to take on Asia’s traditional powerhouses and challenge for gold at the Asian Games.
In an exclusive conversation with The Meghalaya Express, Nieva said India’s extensive preparation, international sparring and recent performances have given the squad confidence heading into the continental showpiece.
“The team is super ready. We have had plenty of good competitions this year and we have had great results,” Nieva said.
India’s preparation has included valuable international exposure, with strong teams from the Dominican Republic and Iran travelling to India for sparring sessions. The Indian squad is now heading to Japan for a preparation camp before the Games.
“We had some foreign sparring in India. Dominican Republic came, Iran came with strong teams and now we’re going to Japan for a preparation camp. So, we are more than ready,” he said.
The coach made no attempt to hide India’s ambitions.
“We expect medals and hopefully we get the gold medals this time.”
Behind the giants, but growing
Asian boxing remains arguably the toughest continental competition in the sport, with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China among the world’s strongest boxing nations.
Nieva offered an honest assessment of India’s current position.
“Probably we are behind those countries, which should be normal. They have a rich history of gold medals at the Olympic Games and we don’t,” he said.
But he believes India’s potential is growing rapidly, particularly in women’s boxing.
“Our potential is huge. We are growing. Women’s boxing in India is very strong. Everybody respects us and we have high hopes.”
While acknowledging that winning gold requires several factors to fall into place, Nieva remains convinced that India possesses athletes capable of beating the best.
“We have boxers who are absolutely capable of winning gold medals at any competition.”
Small improvements, big difference
Reflecting on the progress made since he joined the current coaching set-up, Nieva said Indian boxing has improved in small but crucial technical and tactical areas.
He clarified that he was not part of the Indian coaching set-up during the Paris Olympics and could speak with greater authority about the women’s programme, where he has more direct involvement.
“In the time I’ve been here, we’ve had good results. We have made small improvements, I would say,” he said.
Those small improvements, however, can become decisive in a sport where the finest margins often separate victory from defeat.
“Especially in technical and tactical things that we are doing better. Small details make a difference over nine minutes.”
Nieva explained that creating better scoring opportunities, conserving energy and maintaining control during a bout are areas where small improvements can have a major impact.
“Those small things can decide a close bout in your favour.”
‘Huge depth’ in women’s boxing
One of India’s biggest strengths, according to Nieva, is the depth emerging in certain women’s weight categories.
While admitting that the same depth does not yet exist across every division, he highlighted the intense competition in the 51kg and 54kg categories.
“If you look at women’s 51 and women’s 54, we have huge depth,” he said.
Nieva believes India’s strength in the 51kg category is comparable with any country in the world.
“I don’t think any country in the world would have more depth than we have in 51, just to qualify for these Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.”
The competition within India itself, he said, has become increasingly fierce, with world champions and world youth champions competing for limited places in the national squad.
“That depth is probably—there’s no country in the world that has that depth.”
However, he admitted India would like to develop similar strength across all weight divisions.
“We would obviously like to have that same depth in all the weights, and we don’t. But there is no country that has that in all weights. We have pretty good depth.”
Gold is the aim
When asked what would constitute a successful Asian Games campaign, Nieva was clear: India wants gold.
With Indian boxing failing to win a gold medal at the previous Asian Games, reaching the top of the podium has become an important target.
“Somebody should reach the top. We want the gold medals.”
He believes it is realistic for more than one Indian boxer to reach the final.
“It is absolutely realistic to have more than one boxer in the finals.”
Nieva stopped short of making a bold medal prediction but said four to five medals would be within reach.
“The number of medals, I don’t know, it’s difficult to say, but four to five medals, somewhere there.”
He pointed out that there are fewer weight categories than at the previous Games, reducing medal opportunities. Nevertheless, he remains confident about the quality of the Indian squad.
“This team is capable of winning multiple medals and we expect somebody to reach the top.”
Kazakhstan and China, he admitted, could bring particularly strong teams, but India is prepared for the challenge.
“We are ready to face them. We are prepared. We have beaten many of those boxers before and we have shown that we can go all the way.”
For Nieva and his boxers, there is no illusion about the scale of the challenge. Asian boxing is fiercely competitive and gold will not come easily.
But India’s objective is unmistakable.
“We go with high expectations, also knowing that it’s a super strong competition. But the aim is to get all the way to the top.”
