Olympic plans blown in the wind

CHENNAI: Sajan Prakash is caught between the devil and the deep sea. The swimmer, who has achieved the B qualifying mark for the Tokyo Olympics, is training in Thailand, braving the deadly coronavirus outbreak. But the whole point of training there is to compete in an event in Malaysia next month and achieve the A mark and qualify for Tokyo. As things stand, he does not know if he will be able to travel. “The problem is, as things stand, if I travel to Malaysia, I will not be able to return to Thailand,” says Sajan. “So we have to wait and see. There are travel restrictions here. I am just sticking to the house and the pool.”

The dilemma, frustration and fear Sajan is experiencing is something that’s shared by most of his fellow athletes who’re attempting to book a ticket to Tokyo. The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted their plans, injected a dose of confusion into their minds as to what to do. All with only a few months left for Tokyo.Take the case of India’s trap shooters. Not one of them has qualified for Tokyo yet. A World Cup in Cyprus was supposed to be an opportunity, but coronavirus meant they missed it. Now the World Cup in New Delhi too has been cancelled, though there are talks of holding a replacement event in May.

“We were ready to go,” says veteran shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who is gunning for a fifth Olympics. “The first one (World Cup), the Cyprus one, is gone. It’s important to get the world ranking up for quota places. On the other hand, we understand why this situation has taken place. There’s nothing anybody can do. But the matter remains that there were some countries that managed to participate in Cyprus, while we couldn’t. So they’ll get that benefit.”

Others are confused how to go about things as they wait for the situation to become better. Paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal recently found himself in the gym, confused as to how to go about things there. “I did not know how to build up my training programme,” he says. “Do I go on an off-season training regime? Do I do season training, match training or conditioning? I did not know how to load my session. When do I go into match play? All this planning is completely in chaos now. That is where the big difficulty is.”

The same sentiment is shared by Bajrang Punia’s Georgian coach Shako Bentinidis. “Every plan is changing,” he says. His immediate concern is a training trip to Russia that stands cancelled. “Today (Sunday), the visa was given, but only 12 days were given, of which nine are left. So it’s not possible to go. I don’t know. I’m very angry.” Sharath was pondering whether travelling to Oman for a tournament was worth it and table tennis was not the biggest thing on his mind. “I have kids,” he says. “I don’t want to come back with this. That’s my main concern.”

Indeed, at a time when most of the world is gripped in panic and paranoia, people back home are the ones who are most anxious. Sharath says how his brother Rajat, who usually accompanies him as coach, went out of the equation early when it came to the Qatar trip because his family was worried. In Thailand, Sajan might be taking all possible precautions, but that doesn’t stop his mother Shanty Mole from being worried. “There’s nothing we can do,” she says. “There are no other facilities available. When he was going, I made him wear the mask and gloves and all that. I know the facility there is good and I’ve asked him not to eat anything from outside. I wanted to join him there, but now, even that is not possible.”

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