Kayaking, canoeing teams to miss Olympic qualifiers

NEW DELHI: The massive surge in Covid-19 cases in India has spoiled national kayaking and canoeing teams' participation in the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament scheduled to be held from May 5 to 7 in Thailand. "It's over. All we can say is that it was sheer bad luck. As we were making arrangements to board the flight to Thailand on April 16, things started becoming complicated. We made desperate attempts to fly out of India last week, but fresh travel guidelines issued by the Thailand government to ban the entry of Indians spoiled the show," said the national team coach Capt (retd) Pijush Baroi from Bhopal. According to Baroi, the continental competition in Pattaya, Thailand, was the last chance to make cut for the Olympics. The 10-member team, including six in men's group, was training in Bhopal. Initially, the team was supposed to leave on April 16 as it was mandatory to undergo 10 days of quarantine before participating in the Asian meet. IANS

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