With the COVID-19 pandemic halting all sport activities, India’s former Chief Badminton Coach Vimal Kumar yesterday urged the Government to allow the Olympic-bound athletes to continue their training after conducting the required tests.

Following the respective directives of the Talengana and Karnataka Governments, the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad and Prakash Padukone Academy in Bengaluru have been shut down for two weeks.

Rio silver medallist P.V. Sindhu, men’s Singles player B. Sai Praneeth and Men’s Doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have so far assured themselves of a berth at the Tokyo Olympics.

“I feel sad for the sports community. They follow healthy lifestyle, they have good immunity unlike general public. So I believe the Government should look at ways to test these athletes who have already qualified and allow them to train,” Vimal told.

“If it was some other year I wouldn’t have said so but it is an Olympic year, it comes after every four years. So put them through constant testing and even if some test positive I believe they will recover in two weeks time.”

More than 7,000 people have been killed globally by the deadly virus, while the number of infected has swelled to more than 1,75,000. In India, over 100 people have so far tested positive apart from three deaths.

The affliction has led to either cancellation or postponement of all sports events the world over in an Olympic year. In India, the shooting World Cup and Indian Open Golf has been postponed so far, while badminton’s India Open was also deferred after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) suspended all World Tour and sanctioned events.