Olympic-bound Indian rowers cancel foreign exposure tour

Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh cancelled their exposure trip to Portugal due to a mandatory two-week hard quarantine period they had to serve upon reaching the European country

New Delhi: Olympic-bound rowers Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh have decided to cancel their five-week exposure trip to Portugal due to a mandatory two-week hard quarantine period they had to serve upon reaching the European country.

The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) had last week sanctioned Rs 21 lakh for their training at Portugal’s Pocinho High Performance Centre ahead of Tokyo Olympic Games. However the rowers deciding against travelling as they did not want to lose crucial practice time because of the quarantine rule.

“We have to undergo a mandatory two-week hard quarantine on arrival in Portugal, so we had to cancel the exposure tour. The Olympics is less than two months and we can’t afford to lose practice,” the 25-year-old Jat said. “We are disappointed, but we can’t do anything as it is due to the pandemic,” he said from his training base in Army Sports Institute in Pune.