New Delhi: India’s boxing campaign at the Paris Olympics fell way short of expectation. Only Nishant Dev showed heart in a fiery bout against Mexico’s Marco Verde in the men’s 71kg quarterfinal but it wasn’t enough. The rest could not rise to the occasion.

A squad comprising World Championships medallists, besides Tokyo Olympic medallist Lovlina Borgohain returned with zero medals. Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen, handed the toughest of draws, lost to China’s top seed Wu Yu in the 50 kg round of 16. Nikhat was not at her best and struggled to find her range throughout the bout. Borgohain’s conqueror was also a Chinese --Li Qian, the two-time Olympic medallist against whom the Indian held a 1-1 record at major events.

Tokyo Olympian Amit Panghal lost in his first bout for the second successive Olympics. Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba, a tricky boxer with swift movement and fast hands, avenged his defeat against the Commonwealth Games champion.

It would, however, be unfair to put the onus of the underwhelming results entirely on the boxers. Much of the blame for the disastrous campaign rests with the Boxing Federation of India and its poor planning. In the three years between the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, three coaches were changed, making it tough for boxers to settle to a training pattern. Months after Lovlina’s bronze medal in Tokyo, women’s head coach Rafaelle Bergamasco made a controversial exit.

Bhaskar Bhatt was handed the reins of the women’s team. Irish Bernard Dunne joined as high performance director in October 2022 after the exit of Santiago Nieva, who copped much criticism for the failure of men’s boxers to win a medal. The federation dragged its feet over Nieva, losing crucial preparation time. He eventually moved on to a new assignment almost 10 months after Tokyo. Meanwhile, Bhatt moved away from the national camp to focus on his SAI coaching job in Rohtak.

Dunne brought in major changes in the selection process, training methodology and national camp structure. Results were visible in the 2023 women’s World Championships at home with India winning four gold medals including that of Nikhat and Lovlina. India returned with three medals from the men’s World Championships. However, the performance of men’s boxers dropped at the 2023 Asian Games and the first Olympic qualifiers in Italy in March this year-- both offering quota places for Paris. It was now Dunne’s turn to quit 17 months into his job and with the Olympics in sight. Suddenly a crisis was looming large. Four women boxers had qualified from the Asian Games but the men were left with only one chance to make it to Paris. It was now the turn of foreign coach Dmitrij Dmitruk, who was brought in by Bernard, to take charge of the team barely four months before the Paris Games. He was to be assisted by head coach CA Kuttappa who was also part of the Tokyo campaign. Not just coaches, three strength and conditioning experts too were changed during the period.

“All facilities were given to the coaches but the system of training is to be faulted,” said Bhatt, “Sparring partners were reduced in the camp and there was no variety in sparring. The new selection system introduced (evaluation process) could not quite evaluate the performance of our boxers.”

He also believed tactics were lacking. “You try to stick to your style and not get drawn into the opponent’s game . There was a lack of planning in the ringside. When we go into the ring we should have Plan A and Plan B and adapt accordingly.”

Dronacharya Awardee coach Shiv Singh was of the view that BFI should have had an expert committee to monitor the progress at the national camp. “We always had this process when training used to be monitored but that did not happen. You can’t leave everything to foreign coaches. The coach left midway at a crucial stage.”

“One boxer trained in Shilaroo in the build-up with his personal coach, others went to Germany. Who was monitoring the training?”

One of the major issues that boxing experts noticed was poor fitness levels, especially in the all important third round.

“The fitness levels of our boxers were not up to mark. We struggled in the third round, some of them were not even able to stand properly and were falling over their opponents,” said Bhatt.

Singh pointed out that there was a lack of individual-specific training, and also that of understanding between coach and player.

“Individual skills specialization and perception -- a lot of work has to be done in these areas. For example, Lovlina is a very good boxer. Her natural style is that she punches and moves back. Here she was punching, clinching and holding. Same goes for Nikhat. She wasn’t playing her natural style against the Chinese boxer. Ring strategy was missing. Nishant Dev fought from long range and he dominated in the first round against the Mexican. But then he came into medium and close range going to multiple attacks, trying to match the Mexican who is a fighter. You need good endurance to do that. He fell into his opponent’s trap.”

There was also the case of Parveen Hooda, who qualified in the 57kg category but was later suspended by the international federation due to whereabouts failure. Eventually Jaismine Lamboria was allowed to compete in May qualifiers and she booked her berth in the weight class. “But who will take the responsibility of such a fiasco?” asked Shiv Singh. “The chief coach, federation, they all must have received the letter and someone should have alerted and avoided it. The weight class was wasted.”

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