“It is an excellent decision. I am glad the swimmers will get a chance to get back to full form and race again soon. I hope the state governments decide to fully support the decision taken by the Centre at the soonest and all competitive swimmers start training again.”
The Indian swimming fraternity has welcomed the decision of reopening swimming pools across the country. On Friday, the Sports Ministry issued the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) outlining the use of swimming pools for competitive swimmers. In an official order dated 30 September, the Union Home Ministry had already allowed for the reopening of swimming pools except for those in containment zones.
The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) welcomed the decision and the SOPs created for the resumption of swimming. R N Jayaprakash, president of SFI said, “Over the last few months SFI has been in constant touch with the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and also the Ministry of Home Affairs for permission to reopen swimming pools in India for competitive swimmers. We were happy that with the support of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the permission finally came through with the Unlock 5.0 guidelines released on 30 September 2020. On behalf of the swimming fraternity, we thank the Ministries and the Sports Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju for all the support in seeing our request through.”
In line with the MHA order, on 9th October 2020, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports issued the detailed SOPs and guidelines for swimming pools to resume operations from 15 October 2020 for the training of sportspersons. SFI launched a video campaign on 10th October to emphasize the key guidelines and communicated to all the State Units to ensure implementation of the SOPs as their top priority and work with the State Governments / local authorities to facilitate activities to resume on 15 October 2020 outside containment zones.
Secretary-General Monal Chokshi said, “We are very happy that the government has permitted the resumption of competitive swimming. The SOP document of MYAS is comprehensive and well conceived. It shall be our priority to propagate the need to follow these guidelines for our athletes’ safety. As soon as the MYAS SOP for swimming was issued on Friday, we have circulated the document to all our State Units. We find the document to be comprehensive and well-conceived. We are thankful to the Ministry officials to have sought SFI recommendation while drafting the same. These guidelines are sacrosanct and we have encouraged all State Units and Swimming Centres in the country who train competitive swimmers to ensure these SOPs are implemented while they plan to resume training on top priority”
Virdhawal Khade, an Indian swimmer who has achieved the Olympic qualification B mark and who participated in the 2008 Olympics, is very happy about the decision saying, “It is an excellent decision. I am glad the swimmers will get a chance to get back to full form and race again soon. I hope the State Governments decide to fully support the Decision taken by the Centre at the soonest and 100% of the competitive swimmers can start training again.”
In August SAI had sanctioned a two-month training camp in Dubai, which was attended by swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Kushagra Rawat, both of whom have achieved the B Qualification mark.
Despite the delays brought upon by the Covid-19 pandemic, postponement Olympics may just help Indian swimmers. Dronacharya awardee coach Nihar Ameen has said that the resumption of training is a positive step in this regard, “I am overjoyed with the news that our swimmers are allowed to resume their training. All our swimmers have suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rescheduling of the Olympics will surely help our swimmers get back to form. I am very optimistic that our Olympic B qualifiers will work very hard to attain the A qualifying time and all our swimmers across the country are very enthusiastic about resuming their training.”