Coronavirus Impact: Indian Greco-Roman wrestling star Sunil Kumar calls for Tokyo Olympic postponement

By   - 20/03/2020

India’s 87kg Greco-Roman wrestler Sunil Kumar has called for the postponement of the Tokyo Games citing Coronavrius fear. In a conversation with WrestlingTV, the 2020 Asian Championships gold medallist expressed his worries over the fast-spreading of COVID-19 and thinks the Summer Games should be deferred.

“The Olympic Qualifiers are yet to be held. And without the qualifiers how will the Summer Games be held. Also, what if a player gets infected while the Games are being held. It puts all of us at risk. Therefore, I think the Olympics should be postponed as first, it is important to first fight Coronavirus,” said Sunil.

United World Wrestling (UWW), earlier this month had cancelled all the Olympic Qualifiers except the Pan-American qualification tournament. In an Olympic year, the outbreak of the deadly virus has heavily disrupted the grappler’s training schedule.

Also Read: Athletes returning from high-risk COVID-19 affected nations will be quarantined: Kiren Rijiju

The Haryana Sports Ministry has also decided to shut all the training centres including the akharas until March 31. This included Mehar Singh Akhara, Rohtak where Sunil was training after returning from Azerbaijan on Tuesday.

“All the young wrestlers have been asked to return home after the communique was issued. We, senior wrestlers, took special permission to stay back to train,” he said.

India’s 68kg women wrestler, Divya Kakran has also expressed her worries over the uncontrollable virus and said, “the way it is going is worrying”.

“We are all prepared for the Olympics but first we need to fight the Coronavirus as life is the most important thing,” she told WrestlingTV.

Divya’s akhara in Delhi has also been shut and is currently training with her brother and coach.

“We wash our hands before and after the practice. Also, prior to taking to the mat, we clean it with Dettol to sanitize it”.

Apart from these two, over 200 akharas across New Delhi, Haryana and Punjab have closed their operations including the Chhatrasal Akhara and Guru Hanuman Akhara in New Delhi.

Earlier, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) also suspended its national camps for men and women in Sonepat and Lucknow in the wake of COVID-19.

As things now stand, uncertainty continues to loom over the Tokyo Olympics. The IOC although have assured that they will host the Summer Games, they might have to defer it if the situation worsens.

Wrestling (Kushti) fans can catch Live Streaming, Highlights, News, Videos, Photos, Results and Rankings on WrestlingTV

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