By Prarthana Hazarika | Meghalaya Sports
India’s boxers are heading into the Asian Games with confidence, preparation and a clear ambition—to challenge for gold.
In an exclusive conversation with Meghalaya Sports, Indian women’s boxing coach Santiago Nieva said the squad is fully prepared for one of the toughest challenges in world boxing and believes multiple medals are within reach.
“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 international sparring sessions against strong teams, including the Dominican Republic and Iran. The squad will now travel to Japan for a final preparation camp.
“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.”
And the target is clear.
“We expect medals and hopefully we get the gold medals this time.”
India vs Asia’s giants
The Asian Games will bring India’s boxers face-to-face with some of the biggest powers in world boxing—Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.
Nieva admits India is still catching up with these nations.
“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.”
But he believes Indian boxing is growing rapidly.
“Our potential is huge. We are growing. Women’s boxing in India is very strong. Everybody respects us and we have high hopes.”
Most importantly, he believes India has boxers capable of beating anyone.
“We have boxers who are absolutely capable of winning gold medals at any competition.”
The difference lies in the small details
Nieva believes progress in boxing is not always about dramatic changes.
Small technical and tactical improvements, he says, can make a major difference over the course of a nine-minute bout.
“In the time I’ve been here, we’ve had good results. We have made small improvements.”
He added: “Especially in technical and tactical things that we are doing better. Small details can make a difference over nine minutes.”
Better scoring positions, smarter use of energy and maintaining control can ultimately decide close contests.
“Those small things can decide a close bout in your favour.”
India’s biggest strength: Depth
One of the strongest positives for India is the depth emerging in women’s boxing.
Nieva particularly highlighted the competition in the 51kg and 54kg categories.
“If you look at women’s 51 and women’s 54, we have huge depth.”
His assessment of India’s 51kg division was particularly striking.
“I don’t think any country in the world would have more depth than we have in 51.”
With world champions and world youth champions competing for limited places in the national team, internal competition has become one of India’s biggest strengths.
However, Nieva admitted that India still needs to develop similar depth across all weight categories.
“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.”
Four to five medals?
When asked what would constitute a successful Asian Games campaign, Nieva did not hesitate about India’s ultimate ambition.
“Somebody should reach the top. We want the gold medals.”
He believes more than one Indian boxer can realistically reach the final.
“It is absolutely realistic to have more than one boxer in the finals.”
While avoiding an exact prediction, Nieva suggested that four to five medals could be a realistic target.
“The number of medals, I don’t know, it’s difficult to say, but four to five medals, somewhere there.”
He acknowledged that Kazakhstan and China could field particularly strong squads, but insisted India is ready.
“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, the challenge is clear. Asian boxing is brutal, deep and fiercely competitive.
But India is not travelling merely to participate.
“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.”
