Tokyo Olympics 2020: Martinez was a challenge for Panghal even during sparring sessions, says high-performance director Nieva-Sports News , Firstpost

Indian men’s boxing campaign suffered a massive blow at Tokyo Olympics 2020, with none of the five boxers — Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik, Ashish Kumar, Satish Kumar, Vikas Krishan Yadav — making it to the last four. Panghal especially was a big disappointment. Being the No 1 seed, much was expected from him in his maiden Games but he was completely overpowered by Colombia’s Yuburjen Martinez, the Rio silver-medallist in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s flyweight bout.

Firstpost spoke to the high-performance director Santiago Nieva to understand what all went wrong for the men’s boxing team at the Games.

Excerpts:

Your take on the men’s boxing campaign? What were the reasons for the poor show? Do you think the men’s team was well prepared?

We could not fulfill what we set out to do. No 1 reason is we got a tough draw. Those bouts were difficult if you look at them from a neutral point of view. Yes, I would still say when you get a tough draw, you have to rise to the occasion. Lovlina showed that in women’s boxing, after beating Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, we did not have a stellar performance like that. Some underperformed, some were close bouts.

I would not say the preparation was lacking. We came well prepared like we always do, nothing very different than other times/tournaments. If you go into details then yes there could have been some things slightly better but overall I felt we were confident to get the results. We have done well in the various championships in the past — Asian Games, World Championships and CWG, qualifiers. We have beaten some high calibre, world class boxers against whom we were expected to lose but unfortunately, we could not replicate the same in Olympics.

Amit Panghal was beaten by Yuberjen Martinez’s relentless attacks and pace. AP

The team went to Italy for training a couple of weeks before the Games and did not train in Patiala. Any specific reason? 

We went to Italy because, in the camp in Patiala, we were allowed restricted training (due to COVID-19 protocols). We could not go out, we had limited sparring and staying there for too long was not good for the preparation. In Patiala, you could not go out and that was not good for the mental health of the boxers. In that sense, when we got the offer from Italy to go there for camp, we said yes. There were several teams there, we got different types of sparring. COVID situation in the region was very good as well. It was a good training environment. There were seven to eight international teams there for sparring.

Amit Panghal was seeded no 1 in his category but failed to deliver on the big stage. Colombia’s Martinez turned out to be too good for him on that day in the pre-quarterfinals. He had sparred weeks before in Italy with Martinez and there the Colombian seemed to have got better of him, right?

Yes, we saw that in the sparring sessions, Martinez was the only one who could stand up to Amit. It was difficult against him in those sparring sessions. It was difficult to keep up with the pace of Martinez for three rounds. In one of the sessions, Amit handled Martinez well but before that Martinez had done two rounds with another boxer. We lost to a better boxer on that day.

Did those sparring sessions with Martinez play on Amit’s mind after the draws were revealed?

Yes. But then you have to be good enough to not depend on the draw. Obviously, you get the draw, you realise okay, we have sparred with him and you know what to expect. We know it will be tough. But it would not be a big surprise if Amit would have won. What we needed to do was hope he executed the plans in the bout but he could only partially do it.

Do you think it became a huge mental challenge to overcome for Amit?

Difficult to say. Of course when you are the No 1 seed, you know you can get boxers like Martinez who were not seeded. We knew we can get him in the first bout. And we were also joking about it that we may get Martinez. And when that happened, we said what can we do, we have to accept the decision. I do believe it was a little mentally challenging because you hope as a boxer you hope I am the No 1 seed, and I should get a better draw otherwise what is the use of being No 1 seed. But at the same time, that cannot be an excuse. In the competition, you have to beat anyone anyway.

Vikas Krishan Yadav carried an injury into the ring. When did that happen?

Vikas had some sparring sessions in Italy. He hurt his shoulder in one of the sessions. He finished that sparring but he could not throw his hand in the rest of the sparring. He had to take some days of rest and do some rehab and some light sessions.

Vikas Krishan suffered a cut above his eye during his men’s welterweight 69-kg boxing match against Japan’s Sewonrets Quincy Mensah Okazawa. AP

This was how many days before his bout?

It was roughly two weeks before.

He got the treatment. The doctors said he will be fine. He was pretty okay. But he reinjured his shoulder during his bout in Olympics. At that level, to win with one hand is an impossible task. By the third round, he got injured even more.

Before the bout, he was completely fit to fight?

Yes. He was fit to fight. He had the medical check, our own doctor and the competition doctor checked on him. He wanted to fight. In contact sports, in physical sports like boxing, things happen during the bout. That you cannot know before the bout. If he would have won, he would have been a hero. There have been so many bouts where boxers face little hamstring, little elbow pain, shoulder pain during bouts and they fight through it. Sometimes, you get such situations where it gets worse.

Satish did well. What do you make of his show?

I am proud of him. Even though in the first bout, he should have beaten the opponent easily, but it became a hard punching bout. He had a good performance in that bout. Unfortunately, he got injured. He was not in the best condition due to those stitches. Mentally also, you are fighting a world champion in the next round. It was an uphill task, first the pain and then the opponent. I asked him what he wanted and he said coach I want to fight.

What is the road ahead?

From my side, I know we have made a tremendous improvement in the last two years. No one is more disappointed than boxers and the coaches. We are ready to show what we are capable of. World Championships are coming up. CWG and Asian Games coming very soon. We are ready for it.

When is your contract expiring? Are there plans to extend it from BFI?

My contract is expiring at end of September. Yes, there are talks to extend it.