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The squads for CWG, Asiad were finalised following a three-day selection trial, after some boxers had booked their spots through performances at the Asian C’hips last month.
Indian women’s boxing head coach Santiago Nieva. (x)
Indian women’s boxing head coach Santiago Nieva favours a performance-based selection system over frequent trials, and hinted at a possible Olympic berth for pugilists who fare well at international events, like the upcoming Asian Games.
The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) had to abandon its selection assessment system, which evaluated boxers on multiple parameters, and revert to the traditional trial-based method for this year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games after the Sports Authority of India (SAI) received numerous complaints.
The squads for both multi-sport events were finalised on Friday following a three-day selection trial. Some boxers had already booked their spots through medal-winning performances at last month’s Asian Championships.
“Now we have the opportunity to select based on international results. The less time we spend on selection trials, the better,” Nieva said.
The Argentina-born Swedish coach explained that the approach used at the Asian Championships, where finalists earned direct qualification for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, could serve as a model for future selections.
“Like we did at the Asian Championships, those who reached the final automatically qualified (CWG, Asian Games). We could do something similar for the Asian Games and other competitions leading up to the first Olympic qualifier.
“If somebody wins gold or silver or whatever, then they could potentially qualify directly for the World Championships, which is the first Olympic qualifier.
“That way we free up around five months of preparation time where we can choose which competitions and training camps to attend instead of being tied down because of repeated selections,” he added.
The next two years are set to be pivotal for Indian boxing, with four Olympic qualifying events scheduled in the build-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Two of these — the World Boxing Championships in Kazakhstan and the Asian Qualifiers — are slated for 2027, followed by two World Qualifiers in 2028.
Nieva stressed that holding selection trials before every major event leaves little scope for proper preparation.
“We should look at doing something similar in the future because imagine if there are four Olympic qualifiers and you have to come back in between every one of them and do another selection trial. You can never prepare properly for international competitions that way,” he said.
Nieva, who served as Indian boxing’s High Performance Director from 2017 to 2022, reiterated his opposition to a purely trial-based selection system.
“For me, there are different ways to select the team. We want the best boxers and we need to make sure that we select the best boxers. When I came in 2017 one of the first things we did was changing the selection trials.
“The habit of doing selection trials for every single competition I don’t think that’s a good system. It’s an old-school system. Sometimes it can be useful but as the only way to select a team I would say not good enough,” he said.
The administrative dispute between the BFI and SAI also caused delays to the national camp, which was briefly suspended.
The assessment-based selection process was halted midway after only the initial strength and conditioning tests, and the scores from that phase were eventually scrapped.
Reflecting on the controversy, Nieva conceded that the situation could have been handled more effectively.
“I don’t know all the ins and outs. I’m sure it could have been handled better,” he said.
Earlier this week, Nieva and men’s head coach CA Kuttappa travelled to Delhi to meet SAI officials, advocating for the resumption of the camp by suggesting a return to the traditional trial system.
He said this was the most feasible option given the limited time before the upcoming competitions.
“But the reality was we had to solve it the best way possible and we went to a meeting with SAI and we had a good meeting and in the end we could go ahead with the selection.
“We now have to work together with SAI and make sure that we get a fair system which we are happy with,” he added.
(With Inputs From Agencies)
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