Wrestling News: It is day two of the men’s national camp and things are not exactly how it used to be in the past. Several wrestlers have revealed that there are certain changes that they are getting used to. Wrestlers in five freestyle categories — 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg and 125kg — and three Greco Roman classes — 60kg, 77kg, and 87kg — were shortlisted for the month-long camp which was sanctioned by the Sports Authority of India until September 30. Tokyo Olympics-hopeful 74kg wrestler Jitender is among those who have joined the camp. He said that they are currently locked up in their rooms and are not allowed to loiter in the campus. “We have been told not to leave the room until necessary. Whatever we want to do has to be done with the four walls of the room,” the Asian Championships silver medallist said.
Here are 5 changes wrestlers have revealed are there at the Sonepat camp:
1) Wrestlers are not allowed to move out of the room. And if they do they will have to maintain social distancing and wear masks at all times.
2) Unlike previously, they can now eat in their rooms. The food is delivered to them through the mess or they can go and bring the food in the rooms.
3) If the wrestlers want to train, they can do it in their rooms. Jitender said that he is currently focussing on keeping the body moving. “I am focussing of motor training, so until in the room will do training with resistance bands. 57kg wrestler Ravi Dahiya echoed his senior counter-part and added, “For now, yoga is the best thing to do”.
4) Keeping in with the SAI SOPs, each wrestler has been allotted a room. The ‘one room, one wrestler’ policy has been taken as a precautionary measure.
5) Wrestlers are not allowed to leave the SAI centre at any cost. Moreover, no friend or family member can enter the campus or bring anything inside.
The wrestlers were tested for covid-19 on Wednesday and the report is expected to come back in two days. They are currently in quarantine and will be retested again on the fifth day that is on Sunday. The training will resume from September 15. However, coaches are mulling to take wrestlers opinion on starting the practice early and if everyone is on the same page, they are likely to take permission from Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and SAI.