Taekwondo exponents may not make it to Jordan qualifier
The doors are almost shut on the participation of the taekwondo exponents of India in the Asian Olympics qualifier, scheduled to be held on May 21-22 in Jordan, due to tough travel guidelines in view of Covid-19.
All the eight Indians are in mandatory 14-day quarantine since Saturday. But the host country wants them to be in 14-day quarantine in any other country before coming to Jordan for participation.
“The travel policy for Indians in Jordan says that these eight athletes must be in a 14-day mandatory quarantine in any other country, except India and Nepal, before coming to Jordan for participation and in the present situation, it looks almost uncertain, thus no participation of Indians at the qualifying (event),” an official said on condition of anonymity on Sunday.
“Indians are allowed to travel to Jordan through a direct flight, but now there is no chance of their 14-day quarantine in any other country before landing in Jordan as their current period of quarantine ends on May 22, the last day of the trials,” he said.
He, however, said that people concerned were in touch with the organisers at Jordan and hoping for a last-minute solution to the problem, if the sports ministry and the Indian Olympics Association manage to convince the Jordan authorities about the importance of the participation of the taekwondo exponents.
Each country may enter a maximum of two male and two female divisions with only one athlete in each division. The winner and runner-up athletes per division qualify for the Olympic Games under their NOC.
“A request has been made to validate the quarantine system of Indians at home and allow them to participate in the qualifier as we have medal hopes in the para-category. In fact, Indians need to reach Jordan on May 19 as per the schedule,” he said.
The one-day trials took place on Friday at the Sports Authority of India in which 17 out of 24 campers took part. On the basis of their performances, all eight, including four para exponents of taekwondo, got selected. “Everyone had to go through the mandatory RT-PCR tests. The camp of the selected eight, including four in the general category, began on Saturday. Among them, one has been isolated after testing Covid-positive,” said the official.
The eight selected athletes include Akshay Hooda (u-68 kg), Navjeet Maan (u-80 kg), Kashish Malik (57 kg) and Margerette Maria Regi (67 kg) in the general category, and Sadham Hussain (u-61 kg), Gurcharan Singh (+75 kg), Aruna (u-49 kg) and Sarika Andana (+58kg) in the para-athletes’ category.
In fact, nothing went right for the Olympic hopefuls in taekwondo as last month their national camp was postponed after a series of Covid-19 positive cases were reported at the SAI campus here even after the successful conduct of the selection trials in the second week of April. All 24 campers were asked to leave for their respective destinations.
“We had no other option but to postpone the national camp,” said SAI’s executive director Sanjay Saraswat on Sunday. “Here, we have made elaborate arrangements for all the eight campers even when they are in quarantine. Arrangements have been made for them to watch the training sessions on TV and train inside their rooms as they won’t have any opportunity to train in the open, unless their quarantine period ends,” he added.