Eleven Indian boxers join national training camp under Santiago Nieva

High-performance director Santiago Nieva said the intensity of training will increase gradually and there will be some variations in training for India’s boxers in the one-year run-up to the Tokyo Olympics.

Published : Jul 27, 2020 20:10 IST

High-performance director Santiago Nieva says the intensity of training will increase gradually.

As the national boxing camp resumed on Monday following the long coronavirus-induced break, high-performance director Santiago Nieva said India’s boxers must adapt to “little new ways” of training.

Altogether, 11 elite boxers – five men and six women – took part in two training sessions at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, on the opening day. Amit Panghal, Gaurav Solanki and Mohammed Hussamuddin among the men and Simranjit Kaur and Pooja Rani among the women were some of the prominent boxers who attended the camp.

Three more boxers are expected to complete their quarantine and join training on Tuesday.

“We are planning to take 10 more boxers in August and another 10 in September to make the camp complete,” Nieva told  Sportstar . “I found the boxers in good spirits even after they had three weeks of quarantine. It has been a long time most of them have been without proper conditioning. Now, there is no need to look back.”

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Nieva said the intensity of training will increase gradually. “This week it will not be too hard. We will increase the load little by little.”

According to Nieva, the boxers needed to get used to the new normal. “We have to adapt like anybody else. Right now, there cannot be not much sparring anyway. We have to see when we are allowed to spar.

In the one-year run-up to the Tokyo Olympics, Nieva said some variations will be there in training. “This is the first preparatory phase. We have to build up the boxers physically before concentrating on boxing.

“Preparation for the Olympics is a four-year cycle and you do different things in different years. So, in order to accommodate the fifth year, we have to try out some new things, some variations, so that it does not become boring. But the core of the work will remain the same,” said Nieva.