Covid challenge: National judo champion decides to close gym

Ludhiana- The Covid-19 outbreak in Ludhiana has affected the life of another national judo player, Aryan Kumar, (22), who is struggling to continue with his sports activities under the present challenging conditions as he is finding it difficult to earn money from his profession of providing gym training to budding players.
With the constant rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the district, the three-time national champion has decided to shut down his gym training centre at Focal Point here as he had failed to get adequate response from local sports enthusiasts and has started looking for some alternative option to sustain his living expenses.
The poor financial conditions of his family has changed his priorities, who has forgotten his dream of becoming a national or international player after the government imposed several phases of lockdown owing to the outbreak of Covid-19. Aryan had first hogged limelight when he got selected for the first time in the north zone judo championship in 2019 after winning a gold medal in the Punjab judo championship, which was held in Delhi last year.
Expressing his disappointment over the grim scenario, Aryan said, “My family is reeling under severe financial crises for the past five months because my father is a daily wager who couldn’t afford the basic expenses of our family as there are seven to eight members in our family and we have been facing several hardships to manage our household expenses.”
“Moreover, my core profession of running a gym training centre is presently facing losses in the past five months as earlier it was closed owing to certain restrictions and now we have got permission to keep them open. But now people are not showing their interest in rejoining the training centre.”
He further said that, “I want to continue my sports activities and make my country proud one day, but the situation has made the situation adverse against all budding sports lovers of the city in the past few months as most of them are sitting idle at their home and looking after some alternative job, which is really disappointing. I have also given up my dream job of running a gym in the district as I have been left with no option but to take up something different till the situation becomes normal.”
“Moreover, the state government should bring out some concrete policy for national champions as they have the potential to bring medal at various national or international tournaments but they need to get financial support from all working bodies of sports ministry on priority basis,” Aryan added.