Thakur was accompanied by Minister of State for Sports, Nisith Pramanik, Sports Authority of India Director General Sandip Pradhan, and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials, including President Narinder Batra and Secretary General Rajeev Mehta.
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Sports Minister Anurag Thakur gave a formal send-off to India’s first batch of the Tokyo Olympics -bound athletes from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Thakur was accompanied by Minister of State for Sports, Nisith Pramanik, Sports Authority of India Director General Sandip Pradhan, and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials, including President Narinder Batra and Secretary General Rajeev Mehta.
The eight disciplines–archery, badminton, table tennis, hockey, judo, gymnastics, swimming and weightlifting have boarded the flight to reach the Japanese capital.
Hockey men’s and women’s teams contingent is the largest among all disciplines. The hockey teams were given a warm welcome on entering the IGI terminal, with airport staff clapping on both sides.
IOA president had earlier warned the Tokyo Olympics-bound athletes to be mentally prepared for curbs, the IOA president said there is “no way out” of some “unfair” restrictions that Tokyo Olympics organisers have imposed on Indian athletes. He said that athletes should be mentally prepared for anything that is thrown their way.
Batra said the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is still looking for answers for many questions like athletes’ training and food arrangements during the Games.
“We are trying to prepare ourselves mentally according to the present situation and if there are certain situations, we have to live with them, there is no way out,” Batra told PTI in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
India is one of the high risk countries pointed out by the Japanese authorities. Special instructions on COVID test and hard quarantine for three days after landing in Japan are mandatory.
Batra said negotiations are still on to ease restrictions on training during quarantine.
