Elaborate hygiene and safety standards have been put in place at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Lucknow campus in order to maintain a safe bio-bubble as women's wrestling camp get underway.
The national camp for the Indian women's wrestling team commenced on October 10 at SAI Lucknow. The players have arrived in Lucknow and will complete seven-day quarantine before starting their individual training.
The camp will conclude on December 31 and comprises 16 wrestlers and four support staff. Campers will be staying in the residential facilities at SAI Lucknow.
Several precautionary measures have been undertaken in order to maintain a safe bio-bubble for the wrestlers to train as well as to separate athletes, service providers, and office visitors in order to prevent inadvertent transmission of Covid-19. This has been done in the form of a colour code zoning of Green Zone, Yellow Zone and Red Zone. In order to maintain safety protocols, all visitors will be screened for symptoms.
Athletes' temperature and oxygen levels are being monitored regularly.
Kuldeep Malik, Chief Coach, Indian Women's Wrestling Team, in a statement, said: "Wrestling is an important sport in India, it had to be started at some point. Of course due to the precautions because of the coronavirus, for the first week of training, we will be maintaining social distancing, after which we will start regular training. By Sunday, all the campers will get their Covid reports and hopefully will come out negative, so we are confident that all arrangements will be in place for a regular training to happen."
2018 World Championship bronze medalist and 2019 Arjuna Award recipient Pooja Dhanda said, "The facilities in the room are very good and we have been provided everything. We really feel like we are national campers. We are getting daily updates in the morning about our food and menu, everything is very proper and systemized and the food here is very good. With current facilities, we really feel good and have the motivation to give it our best."
All the personnel who have access to the green zone have been tested for Covid-19.
India has so far won one Olympic quota in women's wrestling through Vinesh Phogat in women's 53 kg. Two further qualification tournaments, Asian Qualification Tournament and World Qualification Tournament are scheduled next year where India will get an opportunity to win an Olympic quota in the remaining five women's wrestling events.
( With inputs from ANI )
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