On Tuesday, the sailing team from India became the first representative from their contingent to arrive in Tokyo for the Olympics, which begin on July 23.
Pictures of Varun Thakkar, Ganapathy Chengappa, Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan who are part of the sailing team and their coaches arriving at Haneda airport were posted by the Sports Authority of India. These athletes along with their coaches became the first Indian contingent to arrive for the Olympics on Tuesday.
The sailing competition begins on July 25.
At the Games, India will send four sailors, a record number in Indian history. It is also the first time that the country has sailors competing in three events. As the sailors prepare for the Olympics in Tokyo on Monday, they have been training in several countries across Europe, funded by the government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
Thakkar and Ganapathy were training in Portugal, while Nethra did her training in Spain. As part of his preparations for the Olympics, Saravanan was in Malta. Their arrival from Europe will not put them in the same restricted situation as the other athletes arriving from India because of the COVID-19 situation there. During the previous editions, only one Indian sailing team competed while two sailors represented the nation four times.
Coronavirus testing of all athletes and officials living in the Athletes’ Village is among the strict precautions that will be enforced daily. Over 2,200 athletes are expected to enter Japan during this week for pregames camps, with Olympic delegations starting to arrive in Japan at the start of July. Almost two weeks before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, Tokyo entered a new state of emergency.
