CHENNAI: The badminton camp for elite shuttlers from the country was paused on Thursday after two tested positive for coronavirus. Now, the camp is likely to resume on Monday, after a gap of fours days.
This development comes after doubles specialist N Sikki Reddy and physiotherapist Kiran C — the aforementioned positive cases — returned with negative results after testing again.
As both Sikki and Kiran were asymptomatic and also given the fact that their family members were negative, they were tested for the second time (RT-PCR test). The fresh results has pushed the Sports Authority of India (SAI), who’s conducting the camp, to start fresh at the SAI Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. “Since all campers are Covid negative, we have decided to go ahead with the camp. Training will resume at the academy from Monday (August 17),” SAI said in a release.
Men’s singles specialist Kidambi Srikanth said that he’s yet to get official confirmation on resumption. But Srikanth, who’s one of the Olympic hopefuls, is ready to get back to the court. “I’m yet to hear from Gopi sir (Pullela Gopichand). He’s probably looking to get permission from SAI.
Maybe I’ll get to know tomorrow (Sunday). If we get the permission, I’m willing to resume training from Monday,” he said. Since the start of the pandemic, shuttlers have had zero activity (on proper courts), but the former World No 1 is not too concerned. “After such a long time we will be resuming, so it will take some time. But we don’t have any tournaments anytime soon. So it shouldn’t be a problem,” Srikanth said.