Even as the government granted permission for sports activities to begin as part of the ‘unlocking’, swimming has not been allowed to resume. In a respite for India's elite swimmers, who had been worried about staying away from the pool for nearly six months now, the sports ministry has given permission to them to train in Dubai.
The Sports Authority of India issued a press release about this. It has approved two-months training for three Olympic probable swimmers who will be accompanied by a coach at a cost of around 35 lakh ahead of next year’s Tokyo Olympics. The three swimmers are Virdhawal Khade (50m freestyle), Srihari Nataraj (100m backstroke) and Kushagra Rawat (400m freestyle). They will train at Dubai’s Aqua Nation Swimming Academy. All three swimmers had breached the B qualification mark for the Olympics.
This decision was taken in lieu of the current prevailing situation as swimming pools in India are not yet accessible as a safety measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The training in Dubai will allow athletes to practise and improve their timing to "Olympic Qualification mark- A Time". The COVID-19 pandemic had halted the training of India’s swimmers since March.
The training for the swimmers is scheduled to start from the first week of September.
Nataraj, who achieved the B qualification mark last year in the 100m backstroke event with a national record time of 54.69sec, needs to bring his timing down to 53.85 seconds to be sure of a Tokyo Olympics spot.
Rawat had achieved the B qualification mark in the three events of 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle.
Three other swimmers—Sajan Prakash, Aryan Makhija and Advait Page—have also achieved the B qualification mark in their respective events for the Olympics and are aiming for the A standard.
Prakash and Makhija have resumed training in Phuket in Thailand and Alabama in the US, respectively.
