CHENNAI: Indian rowers Arvind Singh and Arjun lal Jat, who recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympics are eagerly waiting for their next move. The Rowing Federation of India believes they should start their training as early as possible. Their first target is to get the duo at the Army Sports Institute at Pune and begin their training. And their next one is to send them to Porto (Portugal) for training. However, going by RFI, for any training, it is still awaiting the nod from SAI where they have submitted their Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions 2021-22 for approval.
The Portugal trip for Olympic preparation is a new addition to RFI’s manual. The request has been made to SAI and RFI is expecting a positive response from SAI. “Without an approved budget, we struggle to pay salaries of our coaches forget about conducting camps and we are not sure how we will begin our national camp from May 18 at Pune,” said an official. “We plan to resume the camp at the Army Rowing Node in Pune from May 18. Only double sculls rowers including Arvind and Arjun will attend the camp.”
The non-sanctioning of the budget has also led to two coaches of the federation were also not paid their salaries for the last month due to the financial crunch. “The two coaches were not paid the salaries for the month of April. They played a key role in helping these rowers qualify. They stayed inside bio-bubble for almost eight months along with the rowers before the qualifying event in Tokyo,” added the official.
When asked about the issue, RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo admitted that the budget has not been approved but said but, “We are hopeful it will be cleared soon. We are also optimistic that the Portugal trip will be cleared soon |by the SAI.”
It was learnt that the federation had submitted an estimated budget of around `7.5 crore to the SAI in February and brought it down considerably after receiving instructions. The Covid-19 pandemic had delayed sanctioning of the budget last year and with the country still reeling under the second wave of the coronavirus, this financial year seems no different.