“Those events are not the Olympics but are similar” – Santiago Nieva feels big-game experience will come in handy for Indian boxers in Tokyo
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Santiago Nieva
Indian boxing men’s team is one of the country’s brightest medal prospects at the Tokyo Olympics. As many as nine Indian boxers have qualified so far and five of them are men. Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik, Ashish Kumar and Satish Kumar will be featuring in their maiden Olympics while Vikas Krishan is gearing up for his third.
The team’s high-performance director Santiago Nieva feels that his side’s experience in high-profile games will come in handy in Tokyo. Off the four debutants this year, Panghal and Kaushik have won medals at the World Championships, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. And Kumar is an Asian championships silver-medallist. Nieva is banking on the experience of the youngsters going into the main event.
“The Olympics is special, but our team is experienced – most of them have been at major events like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the world championships,” Santiago Nieva told the Olympic Channel.
“Those events are not the Olympics but are similar. Even the Olympic qualifiers (in Jordan last year) were tense, I’d say even more so than the Olympics because if you fail, you are out. So, I’ll say they are pretty used to the pressure. Of course, we will have to see how we do when we actually get to Tokyo, but we take the pressure as something positive.”
Santiago Nieva backs Amit Panghal following his stumble at Boxam meet
Following a brilliant show in the Boxing World Cup, where he won a gold medal, Amit bowed out in the quarter-finals at the Boxam meet. Nieva admits that more is expected from him. But also backed him to come good on the big stage. While Manish bagged a gold at the meet, Kumar tested COVID-positive before the final and Satish Kumar fell ill before his bout.
“Amit is one of our biggest hopes for a gold medal. He lost a close bout, we expected more from him, sure but he has proven many times that he operates at a high level,” stated Nieva.
“We have to work on a few things but I’m confident he will be at his best in Tokyo.”
Talking of preparations for the Games, Nieva stressed on the importance of international camps. The Swedish coach asserts that with not many tournaments to come in the build-up to Tokyo, it is the only way for the players to gain some exposure.
“I think we have two more events – one in the Czech Republic and hopefully the Asian Championships in May or June – before the Olympics, so we will go abroad for some international camps,” revealed Nieva.
“I think we will travel to the USA for one and organise another camp right before the Olympics. We also plan to invite a few countries to come train in India, so those things will be really important for us.”
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Anshuman Mahapatra
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