NEW DELHI: The national camp for sprint cyclists at New Delhi’s IG stadium is edging closer with both cyclists from Andaman and Nicobar Islands already reaching the capital. The remaining cyclists from Manipur, Punjab and West Bengal are expected to arrive in a couple of days.
Cyclists from Manipur will be arriving on August 3 and the five will board a direct flight from Imphal. Punjab cyclists will also take a flight while the lone cyclist from Bengal will board the Rajdhani Express as all flights from Kolkata to Delhi are currently non-operational till August 15. She was initially supposed to fly to Delhi but the ban on flights meant SAI had to book a train instead.
All cyclists will be tested upon arrival after which they will undergo mandatory quarantine of seven days. Unlike earlier, all cyclists will stay in separate rooms and all rooms have been duly sanitised. Even both gymnasium which will be used by the athletes has been thoroughly sterilised.
“We have taken care to ensure all areas have been sanitised properly. All SOPs will be followed and only once everybody finishes their quarantine, we will resume training,” CFI chairman Onkar Singh said.
“Finally, we can start full-fledged practice after a long gap. It has been tough but we are looking forward to the camp. The federation and our coaches have informed us of all SOPs which we will follow and also how everything has been properly disinfected. So we have no worries,” a top cyclist revealed.
Repair work on the velodrome roof is currently underway but there will not be any problems as such, CFI clarified. The federation officials and coaches held a meeting on Friday to ascertain how to begin the camp. It has been decided that since the players have had very little training in the past five months, fitness work will be of paramount importance in an opening couple of days.
“Fitness work and diet will be crucial in the beginning. Our cyclists could not adhere to strict dietary restrictions so we will first work on that. Watt bikes will be used to lose any weight gained and only then will we begin track work. It will be important to give the athletes’ body time to adjust to the extra work load or injuries might occur,” one of the coaches added. Coaches from Jammu and Manipur will also be reaching in the coming days.