CHENNAI: AS Tamil Nadu enters Unlock 4.0 with major relaxations, the new guidelines seem to be in favour of athletes. The state government announced on Sunday that all sports complexes, public and private, shall be opened sans spectators from Tuesday.
It came as a major boost for state-level players who were denied permission to practice outdoors for more than five months due to the lockdown. Many top athletes have already begun training in August after the government allowed them to use the facilities owned by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT).
In a first, hockey players will be setting foot on the turf for the first time on Tuesday since March. The SDAT-owned hockey stadiums have already been disinfected. With the first step in resumption taken, the Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUTN) is mulling conducting inter-district tournaments between October and November if the normalcy is restored. “We will look at having inter-district events after a month at various venues. Following that, we will have a training camp for state players in November-December ahead of next year’s nationals,” said HUTN president Sekhar J Manoharan.
However, not many associations are keen to press the restart button. The Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), which has the Indian Squash Academy, will take a call soon on allowing players in the junior and sub-junior categories at the venue after consulting with athletes. “We will talk with the players and check if they are comfortable to come to the academy,” said SRFI’s secretary-general Cyrus Poncha.
Athletics natls deferred
As reported by this newspaper, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has officially postponed the domestic season which was slated to begin from September 12 with the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala. This means the senior open national championship in Chennai which was slated from September 20 to 25 will not take place. According to the Tamil Nadu Athletics Association secretary C Latha, AFI has informed the state units that there will be no events till the end of October. AFI will hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the new calendar with events expected to begin from November.