CHENNAI: After a tiresome flight journey of more than 10 hours, excluding a stopover of three-and-half-an-hour, Indian athletes were longing for rest when they reached Nagoya, Japan on Wednesday morning. Instead, they were left stranded for more than 14 hours without food and minimal facilities at their disposal. The wait to have their rooms on the cruise ship docked in the city for the purpose only grew with each passing hour with local officials proving to be of little help.
Even those, who finally got the accommodation, have to share the facility among themselves as the organising committee has allocated rooms to teams from other countries in what could be a gross miscalculation of the number of athletes arriving at the place.
Indian rowers 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 an hour later only to find themselves waiting endlessly to get promised accommodations.
"We reached the facility around 9 AM JST and it's 8:30 PM now but only a few of us got the rooms," an Indian rower, who is part of a 30-member rowing contingent comprising 17 male and five female athletes, told this daily. "Even those who got the rooms were asked to accommodate more athletes. It seems the organisers have miscalculated the number of athletes," added the rower.
Not only rowers, Indian shooters and a couple of more teams from the country faced the similar fate. Shooters, in fact, were made to check-in in a different hotel after the facility where they were supposed to be housed was taken by others. Some of the Indian Olympic Association members too have to be rushed to a nearby hotel and adjust the medical team with them for the time being. Notably, IOA officials are part of the team and supposed to stay at the Games Village.
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. The organising committee 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.
With the organisers accommodating teams in hotels, athletes are unlikely to stay at one place as is the practice. The organisers, this time, did not opt for a consolidated Games Village but a cruise ship in its place as part of cost cutting measures.
Importantly, not only Indian teams, athletes from Vietnam, China, Korea and Thailand too were 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's 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".