NEW DELHI: The national weightlifting camp at NIS Patiala will see the addition of two female weightlifters who will arrive along with Tokyo-bound Jeremy Lalrinnunga next month.
The duo - Odisha's Jhilli Dalabehera and P Anuradha of Tamil Nadu - were part of the national camp that was held before coronavirus pandemic brought the country to a standstill. They had left for their homes and now have been summoned by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) to rejoin camp.
"Both lifters had gone home due to the pandemic. Since training was not going on, it was not an issue. Now that the training has already started in Patiala, we have called both of them," IWLF secretary Sahdev Yadav told this daily. At present, there are six male and three female lifters attending the camp.
Jeremy had gone home recently after complaining of homesickness. All three lifters are set to reach Patiala on August 5. After that, they will undergo the compulsory quarantine period and testing. Jeremy was scheduled to reach earlier but ticketing troubles due to lockdown had delayed those plans. SAI is in charge of ticketing for all three.
"We will need a strong group for training and it is good that all three will rejoin. We are practising while maintaining social distancing, and there is enough room for all," chief coach Vijay Sharma added.
The coach also said that all guidelines are being followed inside the weightlifting hall while weight training was being done once daily.
"We cannot exert too much pressure right away. We need to begin slowly considering the loss in muscle mass over the course of the lockdown. We are taking it one step at at a time and all my athletes are slowly coming back to shape.
Sanitisers are placed inside the hall along with a wash basin. The lifters constantly adhere to the SOP and we are confident of getting back to top shape in the months to come. There are no competitions lined up so we have time to prepare," he added.