The spread of Coronavirus has heavily affected preparations for the Tokyo Olympics of Indian athletes including our star wrestlers. India’s wrestling queen Vinesh Phogat’s foreign coach Woller Akos believes the outbreak of the deadly virus has dampened their plans for the Summer Games and has left them clueless about the way forward.
“We have a plan but with the widespread of Coronavirus I do not know if the same can be followed,” the Hungarian coach told WrestlingTV.
Akos opined that as the current situation stands we will have to change Vinesh’s training schedules and plans.
“A lot of competitions have been cancelled due to Coronavirus. We do not even know if the Olympic Games will be held too. Therefore, keeping all this in mind I think we need to change the preparation plans,” he said.
Earlier, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) had cut short the 25-year-old Haryana wrestler’s Norway training camp due to safety reasons against Coronavirus.
The 2018 Asian Games gold-medallist has already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 53kg Women’s category thanks to her medal-winning performance at 2019 World Championship in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. She was training at Norway and was scheduled to return on March 17. But SAI decided to cut her trip short by four-days and called her back on March 13. Not only this, if the reports are to believed then the SAI Center at Lucknow is also expected to be shut as many women wrestlers have declined to join the camp citing COVID-19 fear.
“Only six to seven wrestlers are currently in the camp. A lot of women wrestlers have declined to attend the camp due to Coronavirus,” a prominent member of the coaching staff told WrestlingTV.
As things stand, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will take a call on the current situation after a meeting on Monday.
