AFI president Adille Sumariwalla says India's preperation for the Tokyo Olympics was impacted by the second coronavirus waved in India.
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The second coronavirus wave severely hit India’s preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, according to Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla.
The current wave of Covid-19 cases in India has impacted India severely. The country is logging over 300,000 cases on a daily basis, with daily deaths crossing the 3,000 mark.
Yet Sumariwalla added that top athletes did well in the Federation Cup Athletics Championships in March. This, he says, raises hopes of a good season.
“It raised hopes of a good season ahead, but AFI’s road map for the Tokyo Olympics got disrupted due to a surge in pandemic in India,” Sumariwalla said in the latest AFI newsletter.
“Foreign exposure tours for top athletes didn’t go as planned due to travel restrictions put in place by several European nations for Indians and it made things more challenging to send the athletes abroad for training.”
Ten individual athletes, including javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh, have achieved quota places for the Tokyo Olympics.
The national mixed 4x400m relay team has also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. This is by virtue of being finalist at the 2019 Doha World Championships.
Last week, the national relay team was unable to go to Poland to compete in the World Relays. This was another was a big setback for AFI to prepare athletes for the Olympics.
World Relays competition was a qualification event for the Olympics. The AFI hoped the women’s 4x100m relay team will earn a berth for the Olympics.
“In these challenging times when summer heat is soaring in Patiala and European countries having 15-day quarantine rules in place for the Indians, it is tough to find a right place to train. With Olympics around the corner undergoing quarantine for 15 days would completely spoil the show,” Sumariwalla said.
Despite setbacks, Sumariwalla is hopeful of a solution coming about sooner rather than later. “The AFI is working to find the best place to train in Europe ahead of the Olympics,” he said.
