Bhubaneswar: The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has decided to shift the training base of some elite Indian athletes due to extreme cold conditions prevailing at Patiala.
The five-member javelin team, including star athlete Neeraj Chopra, will now be training at Bhubaneshwar’s Kalinga Stadium after the Odisha government agreed to the AFI’s request.
“It’s good to be here in Bhubaneswar for training ahead of Olympics… I had taken part in Asian Championship here in 2017 and have good memories as I won gold… Looking forward to one month of good training,” Neeraj said on arrival in the Odisha capital on Thursday.
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Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold-medal winner Neeraj apart, the other javelin throwers who are part of the training camp are Shivpal Singh, Rajinder Singh, Rohit Yadav and Annu Rani.
Both foreign coaches Uwe Hohn and Klaus Erich Bartoneitz, and three other members of support staff also landed in Bhubaneswar.
“We are waiting for a formal approval from SAI. We can start the camp there within a week,” The Tribune quoted a source as saying.
With temperatures plummeting in Patiala, the middle and long-distance running team has also been shifted to Bengaluru.
