new delhi the sports of authority of india sai had in late may announced with much fanfare about the opening of sports activities for its trainee athletes at the jawahar lal nehru jln and major dhyanchand stadiums in the national capitalthe gates of the citys two premier stadiums were thrown open to the trainees and their parents after 63 days into the coronavirusinduced nationwide lockdown the sai had expected the move to be a confidencebuilding exercise to bring the trainees out of their sporting exilehowever more than a month later the stadiums are still waiting for its trainee athletes to assemble in full numbers the facilities are witnessing a footfall of only 1520 athletes daily for training resulting in a great deal of disappointment for sports administrators the reason behind the low turnout has obviously to do with the rising number of covid19 cases in the city with the total number of case count breaching the one lakhmark the parents are understandably worried about the health and safety of their kids also public transport like the delhi metro and shortage of citys lowfloor buses on several routes have also resulted in the poor athlete responsehowever the athletes and their parents are also little apprehensive about the health hygiene and social distancing protocols followed at the two stadiums with certain sections of the ministry of home affairs mha income tax department and national mission for clean ganga nmcg among others operating out of these facilities with their staff members the cleanliness of training equipment like badminton shuttles table tennis and lawn tennis balls has also been an issuesai informed that the facilities were opened for the benefit of athletes considering the rising number of covid19 cases in the city parents are understandably reluctant to send their children for training sai is ensuring that all sops are being followed strictly for safety of athletes read a sai statement to toiboth indoor and outdoor activities at the jln and dhyanchand premises have resumed in archery table tennis badminton and lawn tennis disciplines following proper social distancing protocols these disciplines have been chosen as they come under the nocontact sport category which requires minimal sharing of training equipmentonly athletes above the age of 10 years and registered with sai prior to the lockdown can come for practice after prebooking their onehour slot