NEW DELHI: The second wave of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown in most parts of the country has robbed India's Tokyo-bound paddlers the chance to train in the way they would have wanted.
In ideal circumstances, A Sharath Kamal would have been in Germany training with his club Borussia Dusseldorf. G Sathiyan had made plans to go on a training-cum-exposure trip to one of the Asian
countries while Sutirtha Mukherjee had envisaged training with high-quality foreign sparring partners according to her coach Soumyadeep Roy.
Instead, problems like being unable to access the gym, or stadiums and clubs is the ground reality. And the impact on their Olympic preparations cannot be stressed enough.
"It is an unprecedented situation, so there is no point in complaining. Our Sports Ministry has helped a lot and we are managing to the best of our abilities. But we will be at a disadvantage compared to countries where training centres were open and players got more opportunities," was how Sathiyan summed up the
situation.
Due to lockdown in Tamil Nadu, Sathiyan has not been able to travel to his coach S Raman's centre as well as to the gym. Video calls and buying home equipment for fitness is the best that he has been able to do. He does have a sparring partner in Anirban Ghosh and is training on his home table.
In Sharath's case, practicing at his usual club or at the stadium has been affected and he is training inside the hall situated on the roof of his apartment. He has been planning to go to Europe for a fair few months now, but procuring visa has been a tough nut to crack. Currently, he is hoping to visit Denmark and
train with the Danish national team sometime early next month.
"It has been difficult but the situation is so bad that we have to make alternate arrangements and keep spirits high. I'm confident of putting up a good show in Tokyo but ideally would have loved to have prepared the way I had planned initially," the Padma Shri awardee revealed.
Sharath and Manika Batra have qualified for mixed doubles and they are India's best shot at a medal in the sport. But specialised training for the event prior to departure is another worry currently. The situation in West Bengal has also forced the newly elected state government to initiate lockdown-like measures and Sutirtha has had to make do with specialised fitness training and sparring with two players at Soumyadeep's coaching centre.
"After securing TOPs funding, we had planned for things but there is no point in regretting and looking back. We have to focus on the job at hand and two male sparring partners for the list of players in my club and two fitness trainers who exclusively work with her is what we are doing at the moment," her coach
informed.
Even the future looks bleak. The Table Tennis Federation of India had sent a mail to all the top paddlers on Friday regarding hosting a training camp in mid-June so as to give the Olympic-bound paddlers some much needed practice. But travel restrictions, bio-bubble apprehensions and fear of contracting the
virus has not seen too many players show enthusiasm for the idea as of now. The proposed venues include Sonepat, Bengaluru and Indore.