SAI limits national campers in NCOEs

NEW DELHI:  Alarming rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the major Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellences forced authorities to prune the number of national campers. Days after SAI gave a three-week summer vacation to athletes, other than Olympic-bound and those who were training for international competitions, it has decided to further reduce the size of campers.

An SAI circular dated April 13 said that “to ensure safe training environment for Olympic bound athletes, the national coaching camp at all SAI NCOEs will be restricted to athletes who have qualified or have a strong probability of qualifying for Olympics”.

That means all non-Olympic campers who have no chance of qualifying for the Olympics have to leave the camp. The national camps will have athletes who have qualified for the quadrennial extravaganza or players who have the highest probability of qualifying for Tokyo in the coming days. Going by the circular, the remaining campers will have to be sent home. 

The NSFs has been asked to send a revised list of athletes who will stay back in the camp and sanction orders would be sent accordingly. In many disciplines, the national camps have elite athletes who take part in international events that are happening around the world like wrestling, athletics, shooting but they have no chance of qu­alifying and they will be as­ked to leave. 

It needs to be seen if sparring partners are affected. This will be reviewed after a period of 15 days and necessary changes will be made. 

Full story: newindianexpress.com