CHENNAI: Even as it was announced on Tuesday that the senior, junior and sub-junior swimming national championships will be held in Bengaluru in October this year, there is concern about the fact that swimming pools still haven’t reopened in some states. While swimmers in Karnataka for instance are being able to train right now, those belonging to states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala have been unable to access pools since the onset of the second wave of Covid-19.
Pranav Sarvepalli, a 16-year-old junior national swimmer from Chennai, hasn’t been able to train since the end of April when Covid cases started swelling in the city. Now that the dates for the Nationals have been announced, he is hoping that he can hit the pool as soon as possible.
“Pools need to open as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there is no point of conducting the Nationals. Many people are not going to go if they are unable to train. It will take some time for us to come back to our timing and then improve upon it,” he told this daily on Wednesday.
T Chandrasekaran, secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Aquatic Association (TNSAA), is hopeful of swimming pools reopening in the state by September 1. He informed that a meeting of the Tamil Nadu government on further easing of restrictions, including reopening of swimming pools, is likely on Friday.
“At least for competitive swimmers, pools should be accessible. The Nationals were not held last year. TN is one of the best performing states after Karnataka and Maharashtra. We are hopeful that pools will reopen from September 1 onwards. That is my feeling. It is definitely difficult for swimmers to take part in competitions without adequate training,” he said.
Former national coach KK Mukundan trains young swimmers like Pranav at the Orca Swimming Pool in Chennai. With no certainty yet on when they will be allowed to resume activities, he fears that swimmers from the state may lag behind.
“Tamil Nadu will be lagging behind in the Nationals if the pools don’t reopen right now. At least two months of training will be required before the Nationals. It is a big concern. We have lost a lot of time over the last one-and-a-half years. While competitive swimmers are obviously missing out, even those who swim for physical exercise have completely stopped. And they might not start again, because it is very difficult to resume once you put on weight,” the veteran coach said.