Farida Iddris: Postponement of Olympics will help swimmers to qualify for Olympics

The Treasurer of Ghana Swimming Association, Miss Farida Iddris, says the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games will help the athletes have enough time to train and qualify.

According to her, the Coronavirus pandemic had affected the athletes so the postponement of the Games was an opportunity for the athletes to recover and build their capabilities to beat the Olympics time.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee announced the postponement of this year's summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with Graphic Sports, Miss Farida said she was certain that the postponement would have a positive impact on the athletes’ qualification as they would have enough time to train.

“The Coronavirus is a sudden disaster that has disorganised everything in the sports industry. If the Olympic Games had not been postponed, it could have affected the athletes, but since it has been postponed they will get themselves ready and train hard to ensure qualification for the Olympics.

“Our athletes who were aiming for qualification were affected by this Coronavirus, especially Abeiku Jackson and the others who had trained and were preparing for the qualification. They have to wait till next year to see if they can qualify. It is not late for them because they are training and I believe their training will help them to qualify,” explained.

“We are planning to start full scale training at the shortest possible time after we get clearance from the National Sports Authority. Through this pandemic, they have been engaging in individual training and coming back for training will help them throughout their preparation,” she stated.

She further said the association was putting in place the right mechanisms after donating medical supplies and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to some swimming clubs in the country as it planned to start training to avoid the spread of the Coronavirus.

The Ghana Swimming Association (GSA) announced last month that it had given guidelines to swimming pool operators to adhere to in a bid to avoid the spread of COVID-19.