CHENNAI: As a collective, the Indian women's boxing team is riding high at the moment. The up-and-coming pugilists have come to the forefront in the last twelve months or so and the team has been hunting in packs to produce some stinging punches at elite-level competitions.
With some impressive returns at World Cups, World Championships (both last year) and most-recently the Asian Championships, where they captured medals at all weight categories including four gold, the women have beaten some reputable names to signal their progress. Santiago Nieva, head coach of the team, is pleased with the promise that his wards have displayed. There are telltale signs that the women could go on to capture more medals in the days to come. However, Nieva is not getting carried away. The Commonwealth Games and Asian Games are the team's next primary goals. The Argentina-born Swedish coach wants his wards to build on the promise and raise the bar at the CWG, which is set to be held at Glasgow in July-August.
"I'm very happy with the performance level, with the results in the Boxam tournament (held from February 1 to 8 at Alicante, Spain). There were some Asian countries but it was mainly European countries then. We had eight boxers in the final and we won seven gold medals. It is of course difficult to gauge the level there, given that most Asian were not part of it," he told The New Indian Express.
"In the Asian Championships, we had six in the final and four gold medals, three of them in Olympic weight categories. Beating several world champions and Olympic medallists is highly promising but we need to keep working hard as we have some important competitions coming up. We want to show similar performances in the CWG and Asiad. We know that these competitions will be very tough," he added.
Bhiwani's Priya Ghanghas, taking part in her first major event, was one of the standouts for India. "All the girls, especially the ones who captured gold, went about their business in impressive fashion. Preeti and Priya had the toughest competition, the draw was the biggest as they had to fight four bouts for gold and they had tough opposition from the start. All the girls who won gold have done really well."
Arundhati Choudhary, the former youth world champ, also left a notable impression during the Asian meet. "She is doing great. She came back from injury. In Spain and Mongolia, she displayed high levels. The Kazakh world champion (Natalya Bogdovana) did not take part, we have to see her against that type of opposition. She looks strong and we have high expectations. We also need to work on adding variations to her game."
The team of course has scope for plenty of improvements. While the lesser-known boxers have thrived, Nikhat Zareen, who lost against Wu Yu, the reigning Olympic champion in the Asian meet, and Lovlina Borgohain — two premier boxers who have set high standards in the past — have had it hard in terms of results. Nieva expects both of them to find their range soon.
"In Nikhat's case, there's no shame in losing against an Olympic champion. I liked the way she started the fight against Wu Yu. That is promising for the future. She showed good tactics, composure in the opening round. We then managed to get the bout where she wanted. We need to make sure we can improve.
"She has won gold at the CWG before. There's a lot of scope for improvement but as long as she is motivated, she will be back. Obviously, the 51kg category is very strong in India and we have an assessment coming up. So she needs to take that first. We have improved her offensive game. Not just Nikhat, some of the girls have the tendency to get into messy bouts and they have difficulty in coming out of those situations. So we have worked on that. We see some improvements but it's also not a quick fix. When we get more time for boxing, the chances of winning will increase."
Following their Asian meet exploits, the boxers had taken a breather but they were expected to return to the grind at the national camp in Patiala soon. As per Boxing Federation of India policy, the finalists from Asian Championships are set to take part in both the CWG and Asiad. The rest will be looking to raise their level during the upcoming assessment period. But Nieva interestingly said that there could be exceptions if things don't go as per plan.
"For now, we'll follow this assessment system to select the team for the CWG. There is a small window, if somebody doesn't perform at the CWG, then we could call for another evaluation. But our target is that everybody who is selected is there to perform. So we're counting on going with the same team for the Asiad. We're on the right path but we need to continue to work hard so that we are ready for these major championships."
When the CWG arrives, Nieva wants the boxers to lay down a new marker. "Right now it looks like we can win at any competition but all these competitions are tough. There are other strong countries that we have not faced, some of the Irish and English boxers. Then there are boxers from smaller nations who can pull off a surprise. So we need to be prepared, we know we have a strong team and the recent history of CWG tells us that we have a good chance of winning gold medals. For me, if you ask me, I would like to surpass what we did in 2018 and 2022. We have a good chance to beat that."
