The Tokyo 2020 hopefuls in the Greco-Roman form of wrestling on Tuesday left for Azerbaijan to attend a training camp. The team consisted only of the selected wrestlers who will be participating in the Asian Olympic Qualifiers. Naveen, India’s 130kg Greco-Roman entry for the qualifiers said “travelling abroad is beneficial for the Indian wrestlers”.
“India lacks quality Greco-Roman wrestlers and therefore we cannot work on our weaknesses. On the other hand Azerbaijan has good wrestlers in this discipline which will help us improve. We will get good training partners which will help us work on our weaknesses,” Naveen told Wrestling TV.
Naveen had missed the Asian Championships due to a thumb fracture in the left hand and is hopeful to get the most out of the two-week training camp.
For now, Indians have no fixed training schedule and will make plans after observing the foreign wrestlers training. India’s head coach Hargobind said that “we will first see how Azerbaijan wrestlers train and then accordingly make changes to our schedule.”
“Ground wrestling will be our main concern and we will work hard to work on our weaknesses,” he added.
Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has given no travel advisory for the Coronavirus to the Indian squad.
“No advisory has been given yet. We are still waiting for it,” said Naveen.
One of the world beater in the Greco-Roman wrestling Turkey is also expected to attend the camp around the same time which will be give good exposure to the Indian wrestlers.
As for the women foreign exposure trip in Ukraine, as reported by WrestlingTV earlier, WFI has made it official that the trip stands cancelled due to growing concerns around Coronavirus. The women’s training camp was scheduled to be held in Ukraine but WFI decided to cancel the same. With an exception of Vinesh Phogat who has already reached Norway, the rest of the Indian girls will stay-put in Lucknow for the national camp.
