The Coronavirus outbreak has forced countries to impose nation-wide lockdown. The pandemic has also forced shut of all training camps and competitions crippling the sporting world. But the world is fighting strongly against it and is trying to get back on their feet. In Uzbekistan, the wrestling federation is keeping a tab on all its athletes while they continue to stay at home.
The wrestlers including the coaching staff is under constant supervision. Every morning, the grapplers have to get acquainted with their health. Then they sent the information about their body temperature to the authorities via telegram. The doctor for the national team, Elena Abaeva keeps a record for the same.
Latif Khalimov, coach for the national freestyle wrestling team told United World Wrestling (UWW) that the wrestlers continue to train at home. A team of medical staff has been allotted to us which keeps a tab on our health condititions.
“At present, quarantine has been introduced throughout the country. Together with the Wrestling Association of Uzbekistan and the Republican Specialized Olympic Reserve Boarding School wrestlers and coaches, as well as the medical staff attached to us, a special channel has been opened on the social network Telegram, where each athlete can work online,” he said.
Elaborating on the wrestler’s training schedule he said,” In the current scenario, full-time training is not possible. Naturally, this can have a negative impact on the physical fitness of our wrestlers. I think that the current online training focuses on individual physical training, which is very useful for our wrestlers. I oversee the general physical training and special physical training of the wrestlers in the youth team at home,” he said.
“I can say that there are positive changes in them. We also monitor the body temperature of the wrestlers every day, in agreement with the head coaches and doctors,” he added.
Uzbekistan has reported over 850 positive cases out of which 65 have recovered. The death toll, meanwhile, is below 10.
