National women’s wrestling camp postponed yet again
LUCKNOW: With the likes of Vinesh Phogat, Pooja Dhanda and Divya Kakran, among others, reluctant to avail the training facilities at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) here in view of the spike in corona cases, the national camp for women wrestlers, from September 1-15, has been postponed. The new dates will be intimidated in due course, a SAI official confirmed.
This is the third time the camp has been postponed. The camp was initially postponed in July and then in August. The camp is now likely to start either from September 15 or October 1.
Local authorities here confirmed about the postponement, adding an official communication will be issued on Monday. “We have been told verbally about the postponement and an official communication is expected on Monday. If everything goes well, the camp is likely to start from September 15 or October 1,” the SAI official said.
With Jakarta Asian Games gold medalist Vinesh and world championship bronze medallist Pooja refusing to attend the camp here after the announcement of the dates, many other wrestlers, including Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, too joined the chorus.
“I am satisfied with my training at the Guru Prem Nath Akahara (Delhi) as I have my own mechanism of safety here --proper sanitization and other measures to keep myself protected from the virus,” said Kakran, a bronze winner in the 68kg in the Asian and Commonwealth Games in 2018, on Thursday.
So far, Lucknow has recorded almost 17,000 cases and over 200 deaths due to the virus. “There are chances of getting infected as the SAI centre is next to the Haj House, which has been turned into a Covid-care facility,” said a wrestler on condition of anonymity.
“I know we will remain quarantined for 14 days and will not be allowed to go outside the campus even after that but the fear of getting infected is always there. The WFI should allow the wresters to train on their own (as they have been doing for the last four months) and ask them to attend trials at some other locations, but not in Lucknow,” she added.
WFI Assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said they were keen to begin the camp but since players were worried they were forced to postpone it for at least two weeks. “Vinesh and Divya Kakran had said they were not keen to travel. We were already organising the camp for a limited number of weight categories, so if these players are willing to come, what we could have done,” Tomar was quoted as saying on Saturday.
“If God forbid something happens, the federation would have been blamed. So we will review the situation after two weeks and take a decision. Several other countries have started preparations for Olympics and we did not want to lag behind. “But we can’t do it, if players won’t attend camp,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior SAI official said that all precautionary measures to keep the wrestlers away from being infected have been made here, and “due to certain restrictions: some wrestlers were creating “unnecessary hue and cry”.
“We all know why wrestlers and their support staff are reluctant to attend the camp here as they don’t want to remain in strict conditions. They are just trying to take advantage of the crisis,” he said.
“If this had been the case, all others at this centre could have been infected in the last four months. In fact, most of the women wrestlers, especially some top ones and few support staff don’t listen to anyone here and staying under the strict conditions, including the 24x7 CCTV vigil, isn’t acceptable to them.”
“During am online meeting a few days ago, one of the campers wanted to roam freely inside the campus even in the quarantine period, which we refused. In the past too (when there was no corona), the campers had so many complaints, including food issues,” he added.