Chinese team to be in quarantine before Olympics qualifiers

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 20

The United World Wrestling (UWW) has decided to put the Chinese contingent that will participate in the upcoming Asia/Oceania Olympics qualifying tournament in quarantine in Serbia before the tournament to ensure none of the other participating nations get affected by the coronavirus.

The same protocol will be followed for the Chinese team before its participation at the world Olympics qualification tournament to be held from April 30 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

“President Nenad Lalovic has decided that UWW will quarantine the Chinese team in Serbia before it heads to the qualifiers,” UWW-Asia president Daulet Turlykhanov told The

Tribune through a translator. “After the competition, they will again go to Europe, where they will train for the world Olympics qualifiers. I have not heard any such decision taken by any other international federation,” he added.

The virus breakout forced the sport’s governing body to shift the Asia/Oceania qualifying tournament out of Xi’an, China. As a preventive measure, the Indian Government did not issue visas to the 40-member Chinese team for the Asian Wrestling Championships. In fact, even before heading to New Delhi for the Asian meet, the teams from a few countries had privately inquired about the Chinese team’s participation from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) officials.

Despite UWW’s initiative, Turlykhanov is still concerned about the virus and its impact leading up to the Tokyo Games that start on July 24. “We are really worried about this situation with the coronavirus in China. No one knows what will happen in the next six months. We will wait and watch,” he said.

Getting hosts is difficult

Turlykhanov also raised concerns about getting new cities to host the Asian meets amidst the economic slowdown the world over. “Yes there are some difficulties. But (bidding) also depends on the power of the federations and their resources,” Turlykhanov said. “For example, countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia want to stage the Asian Championships. But the UWW regulation is that each championship should have three styles, Greco-Roman, freestyle and female wrestling; and Iran and Saudi Arabia don’t have female wrestling. We want to extend the geography of the Asian Championships but it takes a lot of energy and money to hold it,” he added.

Kyrgyzstan to host Asia Olympics qualifiers

New Delhi: Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan will play host to the Asia/Oceania Olympics qualifying tournament. The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Xi’an, China, from March 27 but had to be moved out due to the outbreak of coronavirus. “I spoke to the UWW president and most likely it will be held in Kyrgyzstan. A final decision about this will come out either by tomorrow or a day after,” UWW-Asia president Daulet Turlykhanov said. Both the Wrestling Federation of India and Turlykhanov’s Kazakhstan Wrestling Federation were interested to play host for the Asia event. Vinayak Padmadeo

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