Indian Boxing Coach Santiago Nieva Reflects on CWG Success, Eyes Future Tournaments

Santiago Nieva is enjoying his second stint with Indian boxing. The success at the CWG is huge, but the coach wants to treat the medals as the by-product of their hard work, and not the ultimate goal. “Every major tournament is important for us. It’s obviously not the Olympics, but we have beaten every country here, and we know that some of the European countries are very strong. England is a strong benchmark for us. Here, I think we beat them in 6 out of 8 bouts, and we more than doubled their medal tally. “We were at the Asian Championships and won five gold. So, this is promising,” the coach, who had served Indian boxing as its High Performance Director from 2017 to 2021, said. “This shows we are on the right track and that we can perform at all major events, including the next Olympics,” he said. “Now we have the Asian Games, and everybody knows how competitive that field will be. Even if we win there, we have the World Championships coming up, which will be the first Olympic qualifier. Then there is an Asian qualifier, which will also be very tough. So, there is always a new competition and a fresh motivation to train and perform well.”

The coach said the boxers are familiar with the drill and if not more, the CWG medal rush will only motivate them. “Our boxers are used to that. They know that’s how it works and that they will always have to prove themselves again in the next competition.”