Women wrestlers to continue training under personal coaches during camp

The personal foreign coaches of top Indian women wrestlers will continue to train their wards through video chats even during the 83-day national camp that starts on October 10 at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre here.

Divya Kakran, who won 68kg gold at the Asian Championships in February in New Delhi, will take online lessons from coach Vladimir Mestvirishvili while training under India coaches Kuldeep Singh and Sahil Sharma.

“I will continue training with coach Mestvirishvili through video chats. Even before lockdown, I had hired his services online,” said Kakran, bronze medallist at both 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games. “I have been training under Mestvirishvili since 2017 and have had a positive impact on my performance. We (the team) don’t have a foreign coach and I am eager to earn a place in the Indian squad at the Tokyo Olympics. Mestvirishvili’s support even via video chats will help me achieve my goal.”

The 22-year-old was among the few who had refused to join the national camp here earlier this year due to the spike in coronavirus cases here. “Yes, I came for the camp as there is no alternative. We all have been taught how to face and fight against this crisis,” said the wrestler, who trained at the Guru Premnath Akhara in New Delhi during lockdown.

The other 14 wrestlers in the camp, including Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, too have plans to avail the services of their personal coaches online. Some will even make an official request to the authorities to allow their personal trainers stay within the SAI campus.

Pooja Dhanda, the 2018 World Championships bronze medallist, has been allowed to avail the services of her physiotherapist and mental conditioning coach Satyaprakash Singh at the SAI campus. “We have agreed to Dhanda’s request. Let’s see if there are other such coaches for whom we get clearance from the headquarters,” a local SAI official said on condition of anonymity on Wednesday.

The official confirmed that all 15 have confirmed their participation in the camp. “All the 20 campers—15 wrestlers, two coaches, two support staff and Dhanda’s physiotherapist—would be put under the 14-day mandatory quarantine,” he said.

“Everyone has to follow the Covid-19 protocols and the SOP mentioned by SAI. After spending seven days in individual quarantine, wrestlers will have to spend seven days in non-contact situation. Arrangements have already been made for exclusive monitoring of every individual, including the supply of food at the doors of the rooms, medical kit, hygiene kit etc. As many as 14 CCTV cameras have been installed for 24x7 monitoring,” he added.

It has been learnt that the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has warned all campers that they would lose their place in the India squad if they fail to attend the camp.

List of national campers:

50kg: Nirmala Devi, Pinki, Seema

53kg: Vinesh Phogat, Pooja Gehlot, Lalita

57kg: Anshu, Sarita, Pooja Dhanda

62kg: Sonam, Sakshi Malik, Navjot Kaur

68kg: Divya Kakran, Nisha and Anita