Judokas get food, await medicines

CHENNAI: Even as the Judo Federation of India (JFI) is busy in a power tussle, the struggle continues for the country’s three judokas and two coaches in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, who are serving a 14-day quarantine. Fortunately for them, the Indian Embassy in Kyrgyzstan has come to their rescue, providing food and fulfilling their other basic needs.

At the moment, the judokas and coaches are staying in two separate flats in an apartment. They can fly back to India only if the Covid-19 positive judokas return negative tests.“They were shifted to an apartment from the hotel. Three judokas who tested positive are in a separate flat while the two coaches are staying in another flat on the same floor,” a source closely monitoring the situation told this daily. “Indian Embassy has been providing food but the judokas don’t have medicines as it is not possible to buy them without prescription from doctors,” added the source.

A judoka also confirmed they have not been given any medicines so far. “We are in quarantine. No medicines have been made available but the Embassy is providing us with food,” the judoka said.The JFI, however, claimed that all arrangements have been made to make life easy for the national team members. “The remaining members of the squad reached India on Monday. Coaches Jiwan Sharma and Tombi Devi are there to take care of the three judokas. We have made all the arrangements to ensure they do not face any difficulty there,” Venkat Namisetty, in-charge secretary general of the JFI, said. The executive committee of the federation recently gave the charge of secretary-general to Namisetty. 

A 19-member Indian contingent left for Bishkek on April 3 to take part in the Asia-Oceania Championships. But the Indian team had to withdraw from the event after two judokas tested positive for coronavirus. A third judoka also contr­acted the virus later and all of them were asked to serve the quarantine period with two coaches to their company. The event offered crucial ranking points to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.