Lockdown aftermath: City athletes go thru rigorous sand training

Nagpur, Dec 6

With a view to improve the basics and increase the strength of the athletes city''s Navmaharashtra Krida Mandal conducted a rigorous training session on the sand of Bina river on Sunday.

Senior athletic coach Jitendra Ghordadekar conducted the session in which 12 girls and seven boys participated. Generally the sand training is an off season activity conducted in the summer but it could not possible due to lockdown. Therefore the NKM authorities decided to hold such training session on Sunday. Talking to Lokmat Times Ghordadekar said, " The sand training help the athlete to build muscle and increase his strength. Secondly there are less chances of injury since athletes run on sand". Ghordadekar said due to high intensity training on sand the athletes build their upper and lower body core. The training was continued for around one hour and five minutes. Another coach Naresh Shelke said " In fact such training is rare activity and specifically conducted to increase the leg strength of the athletes when there is no competition. PT Usha''s trainees usually go thru sand training in their academy at Kerala". Ghordadekar said such training was organised for the first time in this season. " Next time we will hold the session either at Japanese Garden or on the steps of Yeshwant Stadium".