“Cannot rest on this, have to continue”: Indian ladies’s boxing coach eyes early LA Olympics qualification

New Delhi [India], October 7 (ANI): Indian ladies’s boxing coach Santiago Nieva has already began trying past the 2026 Asian Games, the place ladies boxers contributed to a few medals, together with two gold; the main focus is now shifting in direction of securing as many Olympic quotas as doable on the earliest, for the Los Angeles 2028 Games.

The first main Olympic qualification pathway begins on the World Championships 2027 in Kazakhstan. Lovlina Borgohain (ladies’s 75 kg), Parveen Hooda (ladies’s 65 kg), and Ankush Panghal (males’s 80 kg) contributed gold medals for India, whereas Priya Ghanghas (ladies’s 60 kg bronze) is the third and final ladies’s medalist from the continental showpiece, producing India’s best-ever exhibiting when it comes to gold medals. 

“The first qualifier will be in Kazakhstan, which is the World Championships, where ideally we get as many quotas there as possible,” Nieva instructed SAI Media. “Later on, there will be the Asian Olympic Qualifier, and 2028 will have another two Olympic Qualifiers,’ he added as per a press release. 

A stunning show by the eves at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – six medals including five gold, and now a three-medal show at Aichi-Nagoya, caps off a wonderful year for coach Nieva and the Indian women pugilists. The Argentine coach has his priorities set for the Indian team – get as many of his wards to qualify for LA 2028 at the earliest stage so that the team gets adequate time for Olympic-specific preparation.

“Ideally if we get to qualify subsequent yr early on, we get a superb preparation time,” Nieva continued. “It will probably be a troublesome pathway, and hopefully we will qualify as many boxers as doable so we will type a robust group for the Olympics,’ he added

Nieva was the High Performance Director of Indian Boxing from 2017 to 2021. His second stint within the Indian Boxing ecosystem received below manner in 2025 because the National Women’s Team Head Coach. Nieva attributes a lot of the group’s success this calendar yr to a year-long preparation programme that included sturdy worldwide competitors, home camps and high quality sparring. 

The Indian ladies’s boxing group has hustled exhausting on the Sports Authority of India National Centre of Excellence in Patiala forward of those main worldwide tourneys this yr. Nieva pointed to the instrumental help construction, mentioning that round 40 folks work with the boxers on the SAI centre, together with round 20 coaches and one other 20 help workers.

“We have a staff of 40 people working with the boxers, around 20 coaches and another additional 20 support staff,” he mentioned. “We have improvements in all areas, sports science, the boxing hall, the boxing equipment and so on.” The set-up, Nieva believes, compares favourably with one of the best boxing programmes internationally. “I would say there are not many countries who have better support,” he mentioned. 

India additionally introduced the Dominican Republic and Iran groups to Patiala for coaching earlier than shifting to Japan for the ultimate part, the place the boxers had been in a position to get additional high quality sparring. “We had a good final preparation in Japan where we also got good sparring. We came very well prepared for the Asian Games. Having said that, we cannot rest on this. We have to continue looking forward and in the end we all want great success at the next Olympics,” Nieva added to SAI Media. (ANI)