Tokyo Olympics: India's contingent checks in; smooth ride to Games Village
Excited and cautious in equal measure, the first batch of athletes from India’s Olympic contingent arrived in Tokyo on Sunday, clearing the exhaustive COVID-19 related protocols at the airport before entering the Games village on a day when two sportsperons staying there tested positive for the dreaded virus.
The 88-strong contingent from India, which left last night after a grand send-off, was joined by the shooters and boxers who were training in Italy and Croatia till Saturday.
The group travelling from India included archers, badminton players, table tennis players, both the men’s and women’s hockey teams, and qualifiers from judo, gymnastics, and swimming among others.
They landed in the Japanese capital aboard a chartered Air India flight from New Delhi.
“It was a six hour wait at the (Tokyo) airport where we underwent COVID-19 tests but that was expected. All came out clear and we have checked into the Games village. All smooth so far,” a contingent member told PTI.
The group included stars such as world champion shuttler P V Sindhu, six-time world champion boxer M C Mary Kom, world no.1 boxer Amit Panghal, world no.1 archer Deepika Kumari and TT player Manika Batra among others.
The Indians arrived on a day when two athletes staying at the Games village and one at a designated hotel were confirmed COVID positive by the organisers, who insisted that they are prepared for some cases given the influx of people in the city.
The Indians were duly masked, some of them even wore face shields as they went through the paperwork at the airport before boarding buses to the Games Village.
The total number of Games-related COVID cases have now risen to 55 as per the OC records.
