Athletes, hockey players return to training at SAI

BENGALURU: Top athletes and hockey players were back on the training ground at the Sports Authority of India, South Centre here as the elite athletes, most of them preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, came out of the lockdown with light workouts.

This was the second time that the campers in Bengaluru were back from a break. After a gap of nearly six weeks, the athletes had first resumed training two weeks. But that was short lived as the trainees were again forced to remain indoors following a Covid-19 scare in the SAI campus. The relief for the campers following the results of seven officials whose tests returned negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday.

According to experts, the campers are beginning with light intensity workouts so as to get the rhythm back. While the athletes mostly trained alone, hockey players were allowed in a batches of two though the turf was still not open. The training was strictly restricted to those staying inside the campus and none of the coaches, who are staying outside, were allowed to enter the campus.

Athletes who hit the track individually managed with few different sets of exercises including striding, running drills and bits of acceleration. The workouts were aimed at conditioning the body to slowly increase the workload in the coming months.

"There is no massage, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, massage and sauna. So the athletes won't be able do high intensity training without the lack of proper recovery facilities. They can't take the load," experts said about the training sessions which were permitted from Tuesday.

"Most of the trainees would have lost few kilos due to the lack of proper strength training and restricted diet," they added.

Sources said the top athletes, only the Olympic trainees were allowed to train, were happy to hit the track again. "The athletes were getting tired of no staying indoors. It's a welcome decision for them," they said.

"None of the other athletes who are part of other schemes were allowed to train today. But they are told that there will be more relaxations from June 1," sources added.

Some of the top coaches including walking coach Gurmeet Singh are staying outside the campus and hence couldn't monitor the training of their wards . "These coaches are regularly in touch with the athletes and give them workouts through phone," they added.