NEW DELHI: After a long break, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) has finally sanctioned a four-month long camp, starting October 1, for 12 male rowers who have the best chance of making the cut for the Tokyo Olympics.
The camp is scheduled to be held at the Army Rowing Node, Pune. The camp, which is expected to run till January next year, will consist of two categories — men’s singles sculls (M1x) and lightweight men’s doubles Sculls (LM2x).
The rowers who will be attending the camp are Sawarn Singh, Sukhmeet Singh, Bittu Singh, Jakar Singh, Roopendra Singh, Parminder Singh and Dattu Baban Bhokanal in single sculls and Rohit Kumar, Bhagwan Singh, Arvind Singh, Arjun Lal Jat, Sunil Attri in doubles sculls.
Interestingly, while the camp proposal was sent by the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) a while back, they got to know about the camp getting sanctioned through the media. The RFI had initially wanted a list of 35 rowers — including those from other categories — so as to prepare the athletes for the Asian Championships and Asian Games. SAI suggested holding the camp for Olympic hopefuls for the time being. “We are glad that the Olympic hopefuls are getting the chance to get back out in the water.
It has been a long time coming. Hopefully, in the days to come, rowers in the other categories can also resume training,” RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo sid. RFI has also sent proposals for the remaining rowers as well as a camp for women rowers. The federation wants to hold those camp in Bhopal from January.
The rowing body also mooted the possibility of shifting the Pune camp to Bhopal after two months.“You get to train long distance in Bhopal which is useful and that is why I had proposed a seven-day break during which the rowers would have been shifted to Bhopal.
They would then have trained there for the remaining two months. SAI will take the final call and it also depends on the Covid-19 situation. With regards to the women, they are already in Bhopal. So it should not be a problem for them.” All 12 rowers are already at the Army Rowing Node and are currently in quarantine.