‘No entry’ to personal coaches at national camp
LUCKNOW : Foreign and personal coaches are expected to “stay away” from top wrestlers as the Sports Authority of India on Friday announced the restart of the national camps for both men and women from September 1. The camp for 25 male wrestlers and six support staff will take place at SAI NRC in Sonepat, while the women’s camp is scheduled to commence at SAI Centre, Lucknow.
Most of the senior women wrestlers among the lot of 15, including Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and Jakatra Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat, have personal coaches who monitored their training even when they were at the national camp in Lucknow before the announcement of the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 in March.
The new Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) in which all the wrestlers would be put under the 14-day mandatory quarantine doesn’t allow the presence of any personal coaches within the training centre. “There are no guidelines for the entry of personal/foreign caches at the campus here, but for sure I will ask the authorities concerned about this,” SAI’s executive director Sanjay Saraswat said on Friday.
“The new SOP has strict guidelines for the campers and allowing anyone from outside would be a risky affair. We will write to the wrestlers about their personal/foreign coaches and we won’t have any objection, if the authorities concerned and the Wrestling Federation of India agreed to this,” he said, adding, “But everyone in the camp, including the support staff, will have to go through the strict norms of the SOP, including the 14-day mandatory quarantine.”
It is learnt that Indian wrestlers are due to participate in the Senior World Championships, scheduled to be held at Belgrade in December.
Originally, there was no plan to hold the event this year as it was an Olympic year, however, with the Tokyo Games postponed to 2021, the Serbian Wrestling Federation decided to hold it in December.
Besides Sakshi and Vinesh, the 15-member national squad here includes Nirmala Devi, Pinki, Seema, Pooja Gehlot, Lalita, Anshu, Sarita, Pooja Dhanda, Sonam, Navjot Kaur, Divya Kakran, Nisha and Anita. Kuldeep Singh would remain the chief coach and Sahil Sharma, Dhirendra Pratap Singh and Jagroshni will be the support staff. Selection trials always witness a horde of personal coaches.
“We are planning a strict vigil on the movement of wrestlers at the camp here as we don’t want to risk the heath of the wrestlers, especially during the quarantine period. More CCTV cameras would be installed and the wrestlers would be put separately in different zones,” said Saraswat, adding, “We have example of men hockey players being infected with virus at Bengaluru’s national camp so we are taking all precautionary measures here.”
The ‘no entry’ issue of foreign/personal coaches during the national camp here hasn’t gone down well with some of the wrestlers as they are sceptical about the new training guidelines.
“It’s going to be quite difficult for me as I used to take advice from my personal coaches too during the camp here in the past,” a wrestler said on condition of anonymity. “Even my father and his friend (both former wrestlers) used to give me tips ff court at the camp here, but this won’t happen now if the new SOP has no such provisions,” she added.
She, however, said that the guidelines were to keep the wrestlers safe, but SAI as well as the WFI should make some special provisions so that wrestlers can avail the services of their personal coaches. “You get more confidence with your personal coaches around,” she said.
IT IS LEARNT THAT INDIAN WRESTLERS ARE DUE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SENIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, SCHEDULED TO BE HELD AT BELGRADE IN DECEMBER