India's chief hockey coach Roelant Oltmans has demanded more furniture and TV sets for India's men and women teams and support staff who have reached in Rio for the 2016 Olympics.
In an email to Indian contingent's Chef de Mission Rakesh Gupta, which was also marked to Hockey India officials, Oltman said each Athlete Apartment had only two chairs whereas each apartment housed six players. There was no table or TV set in the apartments, he said, and added that he did not want to risk injury to his players if they were to sit on bean bags that have been arranged by the IOA staff.
“I tried to rent more chairs but at this moment there are no chairs available in the Village. We’re pleased you’ve given us some chairs, but in the end we need proper furniture for all the players. Spending too much time in bean-chairs might cause back-injuries for players. As mentioned in my earlier mail, we need another 28 chairs to avoid injuries. Please help us to find a solution,” said an exasperated Oltmans.
The coach wants the players to watch hockey matches live on TV in their apartments. “During the Olympics we would like to give our players the possibility to watch the matches of our competitors live on TV. This will help the players prepare themselves for the upcoming matches against these opponents. You had allowed us to contact Ren-COG to examine the possibility to rent TVs for the men and women teams and you were ready to pay for this rental service as well,” he said.
He said he had tried to rent more TVs but unfortunately they were sold out in the village. The coach requested IOA to buy three TV sets-each one for men's team, women's team and support staff. Despite IOA agreeing to pay the rent for all the necessary furniture and equipment, the hockey support staff could not get any on TV.
The men's and women's hockey teams have arrived in Rio 8-10 days ahead of their first match.
