Last week, when Germany’s Johannes Vetter hurled the javelin to 91.12 metres at the European Throwing Cup in Split, Croatia, India’s Neeraj Chopra was sulking in his room at Patiala’s National Institute of Sports. The second wave of coronavirus has disrupted Neeraj Chopra build-up to the Tokyo Olympics in July.
Chopra did not mince words that missing international competitions due to the pandemic and the resultant travel restrictions imposed by European countries has led to anxious moments. “For good performance, it is important to compete in quality competitions. Our training is on expected lines but we are lacking is quality competition,” he said during a recent online media interaction.
India’s 23-year-old hopeful from Haryana had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in January 2020 during an event in South Africa. After a gap of more than a year, he got a chance to exhibit his skills in March and he hurled the javelin to 88.07m during a domestic meet in Patiala for a new national record.
“I will be making my Olympic debut, and to prepare thoroughly I believe I should be competing with the leading javelin throwers to get used to the surroundings and quality competition. But that is not happening due to the pandemic.
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“We were supposed to go to Turkey for training in the last week of April, but the plan was shelved due to the 15-day quarantine period imposed by the Turkish government for Indians in view of the intensity of the second wave here,” said Chopra.
Miles away from Patiala, a group of race walkers training at the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) campus in Bengaluru too have been hit hard. Last month, Priyanka Goswami, who has qualified in women’s 20km race walk, tested positive and had to miss training for 15 days.
Recently, Sandeep Kumar and KT Irfran, both have qualified for the Olympics, have been in quarantine for being COVID-19 positive. “It is a challenging situation. Despite taking all preventive measures, athletes are getting infected. Even if the symptoms are mild it does play on the mind of the athletes,” said a national-level coach.
Jakarta Asian Games champion in men’s 1500m, Jinson Johnson, also missed out on crucial training after being struck by the virus. “I have recovered but it will take time to resume hard training,” said Johnson.
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