It's good Santiago Nieva is out of Indian boxing: Vikas Krishan

Santiago Nieva's sudden resignation as the Indian boxing's high-performance director (HPD), Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan reflected on the Swede's tenure with the men's boxing team and said the country's pugilists would benefit from his exit ahead of the Birmingham CWG and other major international competitions. Krishan, who for the first time revealed his several run-ins with Nieva during the latter's five-year long association with Indian boxing starting March 2017, expressed happiness over the development and hoped the country's boxers would now be able to reclaim their lost glory which they had enjoyed during the time of Gurbax Singh Sandhu as the chief coach of the men's team.

Read AlsoTOI Exclusive: Boxing coach Santiago Nieva resigns, to take up job in Australia

In a jolt to Indian boxing ahead of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, High Performance Director (HPD), Sweden's Santiago Nieva, on Friday resigned from his position, citing a "better opportunity" from Boxing Australia.

"I am happy that Nieva is leaving. It should have been done long ago, but finally it's happening. His exit will bring Indian boxing on the right track. For the men's boxing team's disappointing performance at the Tokyo Olympics, where none of us could reach the medal round, Nieva has to partly share the blame. He took us to Italy (Assisi) for an exposure-cum-training trip ahead of the Tokyo Olympics when none of the boxers from the Italian men's boxing team could actually qualify for the Games! I never understood the logic behind taking the team to Italy for training sessions when he could have actually planned for trips to Mexico, USA, Cuba or Azerbaijan which are the boxing powerhouses," Krishan told TOI in an