Rowers’ Portugal exposure trip cleared by MOC

CHENNAI: In a big relief for the Indian rowers, Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat, the Mission Olympic Cell on Tuesday cleared their Portugal exposure trip. As was reported by this newspaper, the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) has requested the Sports Authority of India to approve the exposure trip for the duo, who recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, in the Portuguese city of Porto. 

“We are grateful to the SAI as it has been very cooperative and accepted our request for the trip,” Rajlaxmi Singh Deo, RFI president, told this daily. The next hurdle, however, will be obtaining visas for the trip. The Portugal Embassy has been closed in the country due to the surge in Covid cases. “We are in touch with the Portuguese club, which will host our rowers.

The club has requested the Portugal Embassy and Consulate to accept our application for visas. We hope we get the desired result,” added the RFI chief. Meanwhile, the double sculls’ rowers along with their coaches have reached the Army Rowing Node in Pune for the camp. They are expected to resume training soon. “The camp was earlier scheduled to begin on May 18. However, it will now commence in a day or two,” said Deo.