When the men’s camp was called off in February due to Covid-19, he was serving a ban which he was slapped by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2016 after testing positive for methandienone.
The 2015 Las Vegas World Champion had come to Hisar on Wednesday where he trained with Pooja Dhanda in a gym. After joining the camp, he will be put under 14-days quarantine as a precautionary measure. Only post-isolation will he be allowed to enter the training hall.
Sanctioned till September 30, the camp now has wrestlers in five freestyle categories – 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg and 125kg – while those in the 60kg, 77kg and 87kg weight group have been selected for Greco Roman.
Differences at the camp:
To keep the wrestlers safe, certain measures have been taken by Sports Authority of India (SAI). One of the differences from previous camps that wrestlers told Wrestling TV is they can now take food in their room and eat.
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.