Parents are afraid to send their children for the training: Sushil Kumar

Sushil Kumar the two-time Olympic medallist said in full-contact sports like wrestling, training would be difficult for those sportsmen whose parents are afraid for the safety of their children.

During the Lockdown, Sushil Kumar has reduced his training at the Chhatrasaal stadium. His personal coach Kamal Malikov had also returned to Dagestan, Russia.

“Russian Olympic champion (Abdulrashid) Sadulaev had tested positive for COVID-19. I spoke to him yesterday. He is fine now and has come negative in the recent test. Generally, the assumption is that sportspersons have a strong immunity level and we won’t get it but it just shows that we too are vulnerable,” said Sushil.

“We have opened the center and sanitized the facility. We will decide on Monday how to go about resumption of training but the input we are getting from parents is that they are fearful of sending kids for training right now.”

Sushil said that they would use SOP and begin training with a small group of trainees.

“We cannot have everyone training together the way we used to do earlier. Only one or two kids can be allowed to train on the mat at a time. The training schedule has to be different too. We have to be very careful and start step wise taking all precautions because safety is the priority,” he said.

The two trainees of the Chhatrasaal stadium Deepak Punia which is 86 kg and Ravi Dahiya which is 57 kg, both have been qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Actually, Punai went to his village and Deepak is at the centre.

“There are only seven-eight wrestlers who stayed back at the Chhatrasal Stadium and we are doing physical fitness,” said Dahiya. “We do not want to rush back to mat training. There is a spike in cases and everyone feels it is better to wait for some more time,” he said.

While doing the training, SOPs have strict restrictions for wrestling. It includes no human sparring – sparring is only allowed with personal dummies with only one wrestler per mat at a time. Also, the gymnasium cannot be used.