NEW DELHI: Spread of the coronavirus has prompted the Archery Association of India (AAI) to withdraw the junior team from the Asia Cup World Ranking Tournament, Stage 1, to be held in Bangkok from March 8. “After reviewing the alarming situation on account of coronavirus and taking into consideration the travel advisories issued by SAI and IOC, AAI is worried about the health of our team and cannot take any risk under the circumstances. Hence it has been decided to withdraw the team from the Asia Cup Stage 1 World Ranking Archery tournament,” the AAI wrote in a letter to World Archery. A copy of the letter has been sent to Sports Authority of India.
The decision was taken after a meeting of the AAI. It was held after SAI sent a travel and health advisory to all national federations on choosing tournaments judiciously, keeping in mind player safety. A contingent of 16 junior archers in recurve and compound was supposed to travel to the Thai capital. Bookings were done and entries were sent well in advance. “Safety of our players takes precedence. These archers are our future and we did not want to take risks. We usually put emphasis on this tournament, as it helps budding archers,” AAI secretary Pramod Chandurkar told this daily.
“We got a letter from the federation saying we are withdrawing because of the coronavirus scare. It is for our benefit. So it is the right call,” a member of the squad said.Trials for the Asia Cup were held in Sonepat from February 11-13. The boys’ recurve team consisted of Sachin Gupta, Yaman Kumar, Gaurav Lambe, Jagdish Choudhary. The girls’ team had Sangeeta, Komalika Bari, Tisha Punia and Sakshi Tote.
The boys’ compound team had Sukhbeer Singh, Sangampreet Bisla, Rahul Tanwar, Prathamesh, while Raginee Marko, Muskan Kirar, Isha Pawar and Anuradha Ahirwar were in this girls’ team.