CHENNAI: India’s top squash star Joshna Chinappa is set to train in Egypt in the coming weeks due to the current Covid-19 crisis in the country. The 34-year-old will fly out to the African nation via Qatar on Tuesday to firstly take part in the El Gouna International Squash Open, scheduled to be held from May 20-28. Saurav Ghoshal and Vikram Malhotra are the other Indian players taking part in the tournament and have already reached Egypt.
Once the tournament is over, Joshna and Saurav confirmed that they will be staying back in Egypt to continue their training. The training and accommodation expenses are being taken care of by the players themselves, with their sponsors helping out. With the lockdown currently in place in several Indian states and the Covid situation not showing much improvement, they feel it is prudent to set up base in Egypt for the time being.
“It is sensible to stay back and train in Egypt in the current circumstances. It doesn’t make sense to come back after the tournament since everything is shut in India,” Joshna told this daily on Sunday. With the World Championships set to be held in the United States, in July, returning to India may also throw their participation in that event in jeopardy.
“We have the World C’ships in Chicago in July. I need to make sure that I can reach there. It will be easier to do so from Egypt,” she said. Joshna hasn’t been able to travel to England to have sessions with her coach Hadrian Stiff, who is based out of Bristol, over the last 15 months due to the pandemic. Their recent interactions have been restricted to virtual meetings on Zoom and it will be no different in Egypt.
“I will be training on my own there. There will be a bunch of Indian players for company. In the last one-and-a-half years, I have been on my own. I haven’t been able to travel to England since the onset of the pandemic. I am still obviously in touch with Stiff. We do a lot of work online with sessions over Zoom and things like that,” she said.