CHENNAI: With national camps suspended till March 31, Greco-Roman wrestler Sunil Kumar was left with no option but to head to Rohtak after landing in New Delhi from Azerbaijan on Tuesday. The plan was to train at the Mehar Singh Akhara, where he has been practising since 2016, and keep himself ready for the Olympic qualifiers, whenever they are staged.
The 2020 Asian Championship gold medallist in 87kg and five other Greco-Roman wrestlers, all in Olympic weight categories, were asked to cut short their foreign training stint due to the spread of coronavirus. They might have heaved a sigh of relief on reaching India as they would have been stranded in Azerbaijan had they not flown out.
Little did the 21-year-old know the global outbreak will continue to disrupt his training regime even at his hometown. All akharas in Haryana have also been shut. “Sunil was supposed to train here but the Haryana Sports and Youth Welfare Department decided to close all training centres including akharas till March 31. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the sports minister on Tuesday,” said Ranbir Dhaka, wrestling coach at the Mehar Singh Akhara.
Around 200 wrestlers train at the facility including grapplers from Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. “The order asks for a complete shutdown till the month end. We will ask all trainees, especially those who hail from other states, to leave as soon as possible. There are more than 100 akharas in the state including around a dozen in Rohtak. All these facilities will be closed now,” the coach said. The situation is no different in the neighbouring state of Punjab. “The state government issued an order to close all the sports training centres a couple of days ago,” Greco-Roman national coach Hargobind Singh said.
“After coming back from Baku, I thought of training wrestlers at the Baba Farid Akhara in Faridkot but the order means it is not possible at the moment. The wrestling hall has been closed and we have asked trainees to continue with physical workouts individually. I, however, cannot comment on private facilities,” added Hargobind. The closure order will impact Indian wrestlers’ Olympic preparations because most of the national campers hail from these two states. “We need to fight this pandemic. Then only can we think of training. Wrestling is a contact sport. Bouts during training can put wrestlers at risk,” Dhaka signed off. The Wrestling Federation of India has suspended its national camps for men and women in Sonepat and Lucknow in the wake of the pandemic.