Stranded at airport, taekwondo athletes return from S Korea

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, April 22

In an embarrassing situation, over 20 Indian athletes had to return from the Goyang World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in South Korea after the authorities found their vaccination papers not conforming to the country’s Covid guidelines.

Apart from negative RT-PCR results, those travelling to South Korea are mandated to have a two doses of vaccine that must have been administered at least 14 days before departure for South Korea, but not more than six months. In case the date of the second dose is older than 180 days, the visitors need to show a certificate of a booster dose.

The majority of the Indian athletes had no booster dose certificates. As a result, they were stranded at the airport for two days “without food and water”. The players had travelled to South Korea on their own cost after India Taekwondo failed to get sponsors and government funding as the body is not recognised. Some of them borrowed money from friends and relatives and one had to mortgage gold to travel.

India Taekwondo president Namdev Shirgaonkar was unavailable for comments.

No food, water

“We were stuck at the Incheon airport for over two days without any food and water. No one gave us anything. We survived because an Indian lady gave us papads and a coach sponsored us some food,” said a player on the condition of anonymity.

“None of us was aware of the 180-day rule or that we needed to have a booster dose after that. The Korean embassy should have informed us when they issued us visas. We have only recently started the booster dose in our country,” said the player.

The players were asked to serve seven-day quarantine, which they refused as the tournament would have ended by then. The players took a return flight on Wednesday.

Another athlete said that it was unlikely they would get their money back. “We borrowed the money as these were the World Championships, which happen once in two years. There was no option but to go,” he said.

“Only those players (about seven) who took their second dose in March were allowed to take part. We do not want to come out in the open because the championships are still on. Once that finishes we will have a meeting with the federation and see what happens but it is unlikely that we will get the money back,” he added.

This is not the first time that Indian taekwondo athletes have suffered due to unawareness of the Covid protocols. Last year, the Indian team could not take part in the Asia Olympic Qualifier held in Jordan as neither India Taekwondo officials nor the players were aware of the 14-day quarantine rule.