Departure dates for Indian contingency in a conundrum after Tokyo declares COVID-19 emergency

The negative impact of COVID-19 continues to plague the world and has now added further woes to the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics. Tokyo registered 945 cases yesterday which has triggered the Japanese government to declare a state of emergency on Thursday.

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The new ruling has jeopardized the planning of the Tokyo Organizing Committee (TOC) of the Olympic and Paralympic Games ahead of the quadrennial event. Several things have been put under mayhem, including the departure and arrival of athletes from across the world.

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Based on Thursday's ruling to declare an emergency in Tokyo, the TOC has further decided to disallow spectators from entering stadiums to witness. The quadrennial extravaganza event starting July 23 in Japan is now likely to play out behind closed doors, said an official of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

“Since things are changing rapidly due to pandemic, the TOC in Thursday’s morning meeting informed the National Olympic Committee that spectators will not be allowed to witness athletes in action during July 23 to August 8 Tokyo Olympic Games,” said the IOA official.

A fortnight back the TOC decided to allow 10,000 spectators to watch the Olympic Games. According to the IOA official, since the situation is changing rapidly in Japan, there is confusion over the departure of the first batch of the Indian contingent (who were supposed to leave on July 17).

“The travel schedule is approved by TOC. The IOA can’t do anything. The health details of the first batch of athletes have been uploaded on the official TOC app and approved, but the health details of the Indian officials are yet to be approved by the TOC,” said a national coach official familiar with the development.

When will the Indian contingent arrive in Tokyo?

The four-member Indian archery team including Deepika Kumari was supposed to leave for Japan on July 17 as they had an official training on July 18 in Tokyo. However, the departure date has been changed to July 14.

“Change of schedule for departure is confusing. The Archery Association of India (AAI) doesn’t have any communication from the IOA related to the change of dates of departure. We hope final confirmation is communicated to the federation as early as possible,” said Pramod Chandurkar, secretary general of AAI.

Deepika Kumari qualified for the individual recurve women’s event while the women’s team couldn’t win Olympic quota place in the 2019 Olympic qualification period. The national women’s team also failed to win a quota place in last month’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Paris.

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But the Indian men’s squad got an Olympic quota place at the 2019 World Championships in the Netherlands.

The national archery team is currently based out of Pune’s Army Sports Institute (ASI).

“Change of dates of departure means the archers have to change their training schedule,” said one of the officials associated with the national camp.

Amidst all the changes in dates for departure prior to the Summer Games, it will be interesting to see how the Indian contingent copes with these last minute adjustments.