Stranded "without food and water", over 20 taekwondo athletes sent home from South Korea airport

Over 20 taekwondo athletes looking to participate at the Goyang World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in South Korea had to return back to India after being stranded in the Incheon airport for two days after having failed to meet the vaccination requirements for the Korean nation, as per The Tribune's reports.

The COVID-19 regulations for South Korea are being maintained very stringently and apart from negative RT-PCR tests, visitors must also ensure that two doses of vaccine have been administered at least 14 days before departure for South Korea, but not more than six months. In the case that the second dose occurred more than six months back, an intermediary booster dose should have been taken, as well.

Firstly, these Poomsae taekwondo athletes were travelling on their own money as India Taekwondo had failed to arrange for sponsors and funds for them, given that they are still not recognised as a body by the government. Secondly, with so many rules and formalities to be taken care of, the athletes were left in a hot mess as most of them did not have a certificate for the booster dose.

Snowballing into an extremely embarrassing and anxious situation, the athletes, some of who were travelling on money borrowed from friends and family, while one particular athlete had mortgaged their gold to travel, were left in a state of despair after they were unable to exit the airport and compete in the World Championships they had travelled for.

"We were stuck at the Incheon airport for over two days without any food and water. No one gave us anything. We survived because an Indian lady gave us papads and a coach sponsored us some food," said a player, as The Tribune reported.

"None of us was aware of the 180-day rule or that we needed to have a booster dose after that. The Korean embassy should have informed us when they issued us visas. We have only recently started the booster dose in our country," said the player.

The Korean authorities had asked the athletes to spend seven days in quarantine as well but that didn't help the case as the championships, which occur biennially would have ended by then, making their trip futile.

"We borrowed the money as these were the World Championships, which happen once in two years. There was no option but to go," another player said, lamenting that they might not be getting the money back.

"Only those players (about seven) who took their second dose in March were allowed to take part. We do not want to come out in the open because the championships are still on. Once that finishes we will have a meeting with the federation and see what happens but it is unlikely that we will get the money back," he mentioned.

Sadly, this isn't the first time that taekwondo athletes have had to suffer in this form because even in 2021, India could not take part in the Asia Olympic Qualifier held in Jordan as the India Taekwondo officials were not aware of the 14-day quarantine rule required to be followed.

Additionally, after this incident, India Taekwondo president Namdev Shirgaonkar was also not available for comments, as The Tribune mentioned.