No outdoor jogs for Finland’s Potkonen in Delhi pollution

NEW DELHI: Finnish boxer Mira Potkonen said Thursday she would train indoors to avoid Delhi’s notorious smog as other athletes in the Indian capital for the world championships fret about their health.

Potkonen, an Olympic bronze medallist, said competitors in Delhi for the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships would “just need to adjust” to life in the world’s most polluted major city.

“Let’s say if this competition would have been in some other place then I would have gone for a jog outside but now I concentrate on my boxing training,” the 37-year- old told reporters in Delhi.

“I try not to stay outside for too long. We have an excellent gym in the hotel, the air conditioner and the air in the gym is very good. So we tend to train there as much as we can.”

Potkonen – who finished third in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 60 kg category – said Finland had “the cleanest air in the world” and it would be an adjustment keeping fit in Delhi.

Air pollution soars in the city of 20 million during winter as cooler air traps harmful particles close to the ground.

Car exhaust , factory emissions, construction dust and smoke from crop fires blends into a toxic fug that aggravates the throat and eyes and can cause heart and lung damage over long-term exposure.

Levels of the smallest and most harmful PM2.5 particles touched 380 – more than 15 times safe limits – on Tuesday, according to the US embassy which monitors air quality independently. Potkonen has more experience than some, competing in Delhi in January where she won the Indian Open in smoggy climes.

But others have been critical of the decision to hold the 10th edition of the women’s championships in Delhi during winter, when pollution soars to hazardous highs.

“We don’t feel good. Air here is the worst air from everywhere. It’s hard to train here,” said Bulgaria’s Stanimara Petrova, the 2014 world champion in the 57 kg category.

But Indian boxing champ MC Mary Kom said she usually had to adjust to freezing weather and snow when travelling abroad in November for the world meet. — AFP