CHENNAI: The spread of coronavirus has led to cancellations and postponements of various sporting events across the globe. It has also severely affected Olympic preparations of the participating nations, including India. The latest in the list is the decision of women wrestlers to cancel their training camp in Kiev. It might also lead to cancellation of training camp of men’s freestyle team (Olympic weight categories) in Makhachkala, Russia. Six women grapplers in the Olympic weight categories including Vinesh Phogat (53kg) were scheduled to train in Ukraine for almost two weeks as a part of their preparations for the Asian Olympic Games Qualifier.
They were supposed to leave in the first week of this month. However, the plan has been shelved after wrestlers and their families expressed apprehensions. Apart from Vinesh, the wrestlers will now continue to train in Lucknow. “We requested the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to allow us to train in the country as we do not want to risk ourselves especially with the coronavirus spreading like wildfire. The plan has also left our families worried. We’re happy the federation considered our request,” one of the women wrestlers told this daily.
Other than Vinesh, Nirmala (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Sonam Malik (62kg), Divya Kakran (68kg) and Kiran (76kg) were scheduled to attend the training camp. “The women wrestlers will now train in Lucknow. All of them except the two wanted to train in the country. Vinesh has decided to train in Norway along with her foreign coach,” said Vinod Tomar, WFI assistant secretary. The growing fear over the deadly virus might even affect Russia tour of men’s freestyle wrestlers. “We received a call from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) enquiring about men’s proposed tour.
The government has yet not issued specific guidelines for foreign trips of athletes. As we are yet to receive an update on our visa applications for Russia, we will prefer to wait for a couple of more days to decide,” added Tomar. The WFI official clarified that six Greco-Roman wrestlers have received visas for their training camp in Baku, Azerbaijan. Speaking on the Asian Qualifier, which was shifted to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from Xian, China before eventually being cancelled, Tomar said the United World Wrestling will take a call soon. “We haven’t received any communication from the world body, but International Olympic Committee (IOA) has asked every national federation to follow the WHO guidelines.”