Wrestling camp goes ahead despite Covid results

FOUR senior male wrestlers, including World Championship silver medallist Deepak Punia, have tested positive for Covid-19, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) said last Sunday (6).

In addition to the Olympicbound Punia (86kg), Rahul Aware (57kg), Navin (65kg) and Krishan Kumar (125kg) have tested positive for the virus. They are all part of a national camp at the SAI Centre in Sonepat in the north Indian state of Haryana, ahead of which the wrestlers are in quarantine.

As per protocol, the wrestlers along with the coaches and support staff underwent the mandatory RT-PCR test to detect Covid-19 on arrival.

With his silver at the Worlds, Punia had secured a place at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 21-year-old Punia said he was asymptomatic.

“I don’t have any symptoms and I don’t feel anything unusual in my body. I am perfectly alright, I don’t know how I tested positive. I am just now waiting for another test after two days. I am not worried,” he said.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said the camp would go ahead as planned despite pleas to delay the event.

“They (wrestlers) will be tested again after two days and if they return negative tests, they will be brought back,” he said. “There is no threat to the national camp. It will continue. The wrestlers will begin training only after they complete their quarantine period of 14 days.”

All the wrestlers assembled for the camp last Tuesday (1).

Earlier, Asian and Commonwealth Games champion Vinesh Phogat, the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, tested positive ahead of the national sports awards ceremony last week, where she was due to receive the Khel Ratna.

Vinesh (53kg) has tested negative in the latest examination but will continue to remain in isolation as a precaution, officials said.