CHENNAI: They left for Japan in two batches - one on Tuesday morning while the second one a few hours later in the afternoon from Delhi Airport. With a stopover in Bangkok, the first batch reached Nagoya at around 8 AM Japan Standard Time on Wednesday. They reached the cruise ship, which is docked in Nagoya an hour later expecting some rest after more than 12 hours of tiresome journey. Unfortunately, their wait to get accommodation only kept growing with each passing hour with authorities concerned failing to resolve the issue.
"We reached the facility around 9 AM JST and it's 6:30 PM now but we haven't got the promised accommodation yet," an Indian rower, who is part of a 30-member rowing contingent comprising 17 male and five female athletes, told this daily. The women rowing team is reportedly housed at some other place.
As per the organising committee, around 4,000 athletes and officials have to be housed on the ship called Costa Serena. The ship is around 3000 metres long and has 1500 cabins. Besides, participants will also be accommodated in wooden container-style huts and standard hotel rooms in a bid to cut costs.
"We haven't got proper sleep since Monday evening as we left Army Rowing Node in Pune for Delhi first and then boarded the flight for Japan the next morning," added the rower. Apart from the rowing team, three more Indian teams are said to be stranded at the facility without accommodation.
"We didn't get anything to eat so far. The organising committee members here only provided water. We have been surviving on food we bought from home so far. We can manage without food but we need to rest as our competition starts on September 19," the rower added. The rowers are scheduled to start training from Thursday morning.
Rowers were not alone. Even other teams including shooting and other Indian Olympic Association officials who reached in the morning had to look for other means. It is understood that the organisers are trying to provide hotel rooms. This means that the teams would be accommodated not in one village but at multiple places.
There have been scarcity of rooms as organisers did not opt for a consolidated Games Village but a cruise ship in its place as part of cost cutting measures. It needs to be seen how long the athletes have to wait.
Not only Indian teams, athletes from Vietnam, China, Korea and Thailand too are left to fend for themselves at the venue. "Most of the stranded athletes preferred to sleep on the floor in absence of any temporary arrangements," informed the rower.
Earlier, the Korea Basketball Association has expressed its displeasure over the accommodation the men team was given. Jung Jae-yong, vice president of the Korea Basketball Association, had said that the beds were too small for athletes. A Korean player also posted a video on social media showing a leaking sink and soaked floor in his hut. He posted the caption: "Please help us".
Meanwhile, hundreds of athletes were briefly evacuated from their accommodation last week as record rainfall lashed Nagoya causing flooding.