Athletics Federation of India seeks permission for athletes to train during lockdown

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is working on a plan which could help its athletes to train during the lockdown reports The Tribune.

On April 14, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the nation wide lock down would extend till May 3 to combat the coronavirus crisis.

Currently training at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala and its centre in Bengaluru has been banned according to the guidelines issued by the Sports Authority of India (SAI), when the country was put under a lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak last month.

The athletes at these centers have been confined to their rooms, and training has been limited to upper and lower body strengthening exercises.

In a video conference with coaches and athletes, AFI’s top brass disclosed that they have sent a fresh training proposal to SAI. The proposal suggests training athletes in batches of five, and groups to be told to train at different times.

Interestingly, Sports Secretary Radhey Shyam Julaniya and other officials had shot down an earlier request by AFI during their meeting last week. Julaniya and other officials are still not keen on accepting AFI’s proposal.

Speaking to The Tribune, Julaniya said that any decision to allow athletes to train again would be taken only in accordance with the guidelines from the Ministry of Home and Ministry of Health.

“We will wait for the guidelines and only then we can decide on allowing them to train,” Julaniya said.

Importantly, AFI told the athletes that once training starts, there will be no days off or leaves. “We don’t know who is a (Covid-19) carrier, and when is the right time to move freely. So it would be a big risk to allow them to move out once the training starts. So they have been told to stay put,” said a source.

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