Indian Women’s Hockey Team Captain Rani Rampal, Six Others Test Positive For COVID-19

Indian women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal and six of her teammates including goalkeeper Savita Punia, Sharmila Devi, Rajani, Navjot Kaur, Navneet Kaur and Sushila tested positive for COVID-19.

Besides them, two support staff video analyst Amrutaprakash and scientific advisor Wayne Lombard also tested positive for the virus. All the players were tested for the virus on April 24 after undergoing the quarantine period. They had arrived at the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Bengaluru centre, their training base, after travelling from their respective hometowns.

SAI says that Rani Rampal and everyone else is asymptomatic

The SAI has informed that captain Rani Rampal, the hockey players, and the supporting staff have now been kept under isolation and supervision. It also added that all of them are asymptomatic as of now.

The 25-member core group of the women's hockey team were all set to restart their training for the Tokyo Olympics after a break of nearly 10 days. Sjoerd Marijne, the chief coach spoke about the importance of the aforementioned matches. “Getting these matches were absolutely important for us to analyse the level we are at and the work required to improve in specific areas ahead of the Olympics,” Marijne said. “In the upcoming camp too, we will be focusing on these areas and also keeping up with our fitness will be a priority.”

The group had earlier played seven matches against Germany, and then travelled to Dusseldorf, Germany, and played four matches against their hosts’ senior side.

Earlier, the SAI had called for a summer vacation of three weeks at many of its National Centres of Excellence due to the massive increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. However, an exception was made in the case of Olympic-bound players.