NEWS
The Indian badminton team will begin training for the upcoming Thailand Open after all the participants tested negative for the virus upon arrival. The event is slated to begin next week with regular tests for COVID-19 to be implemented.
The entire contingent consisting of players, officials, medical staff and TV production crew were tested after arriving in Bangkok for the event. BWF released a statement confirming that there are no positive cases after the initial round of testing.
“The Asian Leg in Bangkok received a boost with all 824 participants in the Green Zone quarantine bubble testing negative for COVID-19,”The upcoming tournament will have two Super 1000 events; Yonex Thailand Open (January 12-17) and the Toyota Thailand Open (January 19-24). These events will be followed by the $1,500,000 HSBC BWF World Tour Finals (January 27-31).
Indian shuttles PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Sai Praneeth completed their first gym session after being allotted timings to train by the organisation. The Badminton Association of India shared the timings of the training period and the gym session through a tweet.Indian Team will be resuming their training from today, the Gym timings allotted are from 2-3 pm and the training time is 7-8 PM,”
Due to the current situation, players will have to avail special permission to allow physios in their rooms for treatment.
“The strict procedures allow athletes to see their physios in their rooms once practice commences. A special procedure/appointment is needed for any personnel leaving their room to visit the practice hall, or in the case of a physio, the athlete they treat.”
Saina Nehwal had sought an appointment with her physio and later on lashed out at the authorities for denying athletes their time with physios and trainers. The governing body issued out a formal response in reply.
“Badminton Association of Thailand (BAT) and BWF got a request from Saina Nehwal via BAI seeking permission for Saina Nehwal to see her physio,” BWF said in an official response.
“BAT informed BAI and Saina Nehwal of the protocol in the Prospectus and informed her that there is a procedure in place to allow athletes to see their physios in their rooms only once practice has commenced (on 6 January).”
The Asia Leg will bring down curtains to the 2020 leg after the sport was put on hold due to the pandemic. All England Championship was the last event to be held in 2020 before the pandemic struck.
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