Confusing quarantine rules, delayed start of camps and coaches’ resignations have hit Indian athletes hard
While the cricket season kicked off with IPL and top tier football with the ISL, for the country’s Olympic hopefuls, it has been a year filled with disappointments—delayed starts to national camps, disagreements over quarantine rules, poor planning and attendance at training camps, and no competition. In each discipline where India has medal hopes—badminton, wrestling, shooting, at a stretch, even hockey—the story is the same (the only exception is boxing). Add to that an exodus of top coaches from all these disciplines with just eight months left to the Games—coaches who were appointed for a four-year cycle with the Olympics in mind—and it feels like India’s Olympic dreams may be slipping away.
“Where do we stand? I don’t think anyone in the world can answer that question right now,” said Viren Rasquinha, former India hockey captain and CEO of Olympic Gold Quest. “Because the brutal fact is that no one in the world has played consistent competitive tournaments in the past nine months. This is going to be the most unpredictable and open Olympics ever.”
Yet, leading sporting nations--the US, Canada, China, most European countries—managed to bring their Olympic programme back on track in the last 3-4 months by restarting domestic tournaments and in some cases, international competitions as well.
“Those who have not secured the Olympic qualification face a very critical period ahead. They have to get fit and sharp, because the first few tournaments that they take part in might be an Olympic qualifier,” said Rasquinha.
That will put Indian athletes under more pressure. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) revised the domestic calendar thrice since March, but has failed to hold any competitive meets. The Indian Grand Prix in Patiala on September 12 followed by the National Open in Chennai (September 20-25) and the Federation Cup (Patiala, from October 6) were all eventually cancelled. Even plans of holding internal competitions didn’t not take off. Finally, the season came to a close with the cancellation of the national throwing competition in Patiala on October 26-27.
“The conditions were not conducive to hold a competition due to the pandemic. For us the well-being of our athletes is of utmost importance and competitions will be held only when the situation is conducive. We don’t want to risk the health of our athletes by rushing them into competition,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwala.
Meanwhile, European athletics bodies adapted and organised competitions following social distancing and safety norms (like leaving one-lane gaps between runners) and creating bio-bubbles. The Czech Republic was the first nation to resume domestic competition, and the first international meet—Bislett Games in Oslo—was organised in June.
“In India some of the states haven’t even opened the stadiums. There were many restrictions.,” said Anju Bobby George, a former track star who is now an official of the AFI.
Four months remain before the start of the rescheduled Olympics in Tokyo
but the cancellation of qualifying events in various disciplines due to
COVID-19 restrictions is once again disrupting the run-up to the Games.
Murali Sreeshankar qualifies for Tokyo Olympics, sets national record in long-jump (8.26 metres) in his final attempt at the Federation Cup. He surpassed his own record of 8.20m and the Olympic qualifying mark of 8.22m
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All not well with India’s Tokyo preparation
Confusing quarantine rules, delayed start of camps and coaches’ resignations have hit Indian athletes hard
While the cricket season kicked off with IPL and top tier football with the ISL, for the country’s Olympic hopefuls, it has been a year filled with disappointments—delayed starts to national camps, disagreements over quarantine rules, poor planning and attendance at training camps, and no competition. In each discipline where India has medal hopes—badminton, wrestling, shooting, at a stretch, even hockey—the story is the same (the only exception is boxing). Add to that an exodus of top coaches from all these disciplines with just eight months left to the Games—coaches who were appointed for a four-year cycle with the Olympics in mind—and it feels like India’s Olympic dreams may be slipping away.
“Where do we stand? I don’t think anyone in the world can answer that question right now,” said Viren Rasquinha, former India hockey captain and CEO of Olympic Gold Quest. “Because the brutal fact is that no one in the world has played consistent competitive tournaments in the past nine months. This is going to be the most unpredictable and open Olympics ever.”
Yet, leading sporting nations--the US, Canada, China, most European countries—managed to bring their Olympic programme back on track in the last 3-4 months by restarting domestic tournaments and in some cases, international competitions as well.
“Those who have not secured the Olympic qualification face a very critical period ahead. They have to get fit and sharp, because the first few tournaments that they take part in might be an Olympic qualifier,” said Rasquinha.
That will put Indian athletes under more pressure. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) revised the domestic calendar thrice since March, but has failed to hold any competitive meets. The Indian Grand Prix in Patiala on September 12 followed by the National Open in Chennai (September 20-25) and the Federation Cup (Patiala, from October 6) were all eventually cancelled. Even plans of holding internal competitions didn’t not take off. Finally, the season came to a close with the cancellation of the national throwing competition in Patiala on October 26-27.
“The conditions were not conducive to hold a competition due to the pandemic. For us the well-being of our athletes is of utmost importance and competitions will be held only when the situation is conducive. We don’t want to risk the health of our athletes by rushing them into competition,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwala.
Meanwhile, European athletics bodies adapted and organised competitions following social distancing and safety norms (like leaving one-lane gaps between runners) and creating bio-bubbles. The Czech Republic was the first nation to resume domestic competition, and the first international meet—Bislett Games in Oslo—was organised in June.
“In India some of the states haven’t even opened the stadiums. There were many restrictions.,” said Anju Bobby George, a former track star who is now an official of the AFI.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/other-sports/all-not-well-with-india-s-tokyo-preparation/story-0t9mfmI6i4Dt8fLit0kSgI.html
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https://www.espn.in/olympics/story/_/id/31087289/table-tennis-sutirtha-mukherjee-g-sathiyan-qualify-tokyo-olympics-manika-batra-sharath-kamal-all-through