Competition relief for Fouaad Mirza in Germany

CHENNAI: When Fouaad Mirza returned to competition a few weeks ago, he sensed that he was returning to a very different world than the one he left in February. For starters, “I was given a contact tracing form and only then I was allowed to enter the venue,” he said from Germany.

“I’m given a band that I have to wear on my hand at all times. Without it, you are not allowed entry.” Other measures include limiting number of helpers for riders. “When I used to even bring one horse for shows, I could take 10 to the warm-up area. Now zero.

If I take three horses, I’m given one.” The other thing the Bengalurean straightaway observed from the two shows he took part in was the number of competitors each meet had. “Usually, there are 200. Now you have around 70-80.” But the 28-year-old isn’t complaining about it.

When other Indian athletes are still under various phases of lockdown, Fouaad knows he is lucky to get ‘valuable match practice’. “I’m treating it as match practice ahead of the CCI 4-star long format Olympic qualifiers (he needs to meet a minimum eligibility requirement criteria to seal his Olympic spot), but I don’t know when those qualifiers will be. All I can do is practice.” It’s also important that his horses get to experience the feel of competition, especially Dajara 4, one of the younger horses.

“The younger ones tend to get a little excited and during the weekend, I felt he was a bit unfocused. It tends to happen. The older ones don’t suffer from that. So even the horses need to have the feel of the surroundings.” Even as Fouaad plots the way forward, it’s easy to sense that the threat of the virus has not receded. “Some shows have already got cancelled as parts of Germany went back into lockdown. We are hoping this doesn’t continue.

One can only hope.” Those four words — one can only hope at the moment — is the new normal as athletes around the world plan their comeback.