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Indian boxing high performance director Santiago Nieva retained till 2024 Olympics
The Swede will guide the country's male boxers, who did not win a medal at the Tokyo Games.
The high performance director of the Indian men's boxing team, Santiago Nieva, has been given a contract extension till the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Sports Authority of India’s foreign coach selection committee cleared the Boxing Federation of India's (BFI) recommendation to retain him, ending months of uncertainty.
The Swede had returned home last month after being left out of the two-week national camp as his contract had expired. Nieva's tenure ended with the Tokyo Olympics but he was given an extension till the world championships that ended in the first week of November.
His counterpart in the women’s team, Raffaele Bergamasco, who trained Lovlina Borgohain to bronze in Tokyo, left as he was not happy with the arrangement.
Nieva has guided the men’s team for almost five years now. The boxers had good performances in the lead up to the Olympics, including a high of winning two medals at the 2019 world championships. Five male boxers qualified for the Olympics, but none came close to medal contention. BFI was unhappy that the boxers did poorly despite providing them the best of facilities, exposure tours and competitions.
A BFI official said they wanted to maintain continuity with Nieva, whose tactical and technical knowhow has immensely benefited the boxers.
“We cannot afford too many changes in the coaching structure in a year with big events lined up. The Paris Olympics is also not far off, so we have decided to continue with him,” said a senior BFI official.
The federation has already made changes in the coaching staff. It has replaced the men’s chief coach CA Kuttappa with Army Sports Institute coach Narender Rana and roped in young coaches like Suranjoy Singh and Devendro Singh.
Nieva’s immediate challenge will be to prepare the team for the two major events this year--Commonwealth Games and Asian Games--before the Olympics.
Nieva was also involved in training Indian coaches and will continue to develop the coaches’ programme.
