The coronavirus pandemic struck India’s 16-member judo squad forcing it to tug out of the Asian Oceania Olympic qualifiers that began on Tuesday in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
“Withdrawal from the Olympic qualifiers has dashed national team’s hopes of earning valuable points in order to win one continental quota place,” a group member informed IANS from Bishkek.
Shushila Devi (girls’s 48kg), Jasleen Singh Saini (males’s 66kg), Tulika Mann (girls’s 78kg) and Avtar Singh (males’s 100kg) are 4 of the 16 judokas within the race for one continental quota place.
One of the Indian group members examined optimistic for Covid-19 only a day earlier than the official weighing in on April 5. As per the protocols of Asian Judo Federation, if any group member checks optimistic for coronavirus, the entire group can’t participate within the continental competitors.
“The entire squad, including four coaches, are in isolation for a minimum of 10 days now,” stated an official related to the group.
The Bishkek-bound squad had earlier suffered a setback even earlier than the group’s departure on April 3 as Divanshu within the 81kg weight group from Bhopal’s Sports Authority of India (SAI) coaching centre examined optimistic for Covid-19 and was dropped from the continental occasion.
“It was considered a bad omen. Ajay Yadav (73kg) the second player who tested Covid-19 positive later in Bishkek. He is also from the Bhopal SAI centre,” stated a participant who will miss the match.
Since the chosen gamers had been from completely different elements of the nation, there was no collective camp for the Asian match, says a coach of the group.
“The judokas were told to train on their own to avoid close contact before the main competition. It was also mandatory to furnish negative RT PCR Covid-19 report. Despite all those precautions, we are out of the Asian meet,” added a group coach.
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