new delhi countrys top weightlifters including former world champion mirabai chanu on monday requested sports minster kiren rijiju to allow resumption of training at the earliest insisting that their practice hall is big enough to ensure social distancingtraining has been suspended across sports authority of india sai centres since midmarch to contain the covid19 pandemic the third phase of the lockdown is due to end on may 17rijiju interacted with the weightlifters who are currently stationed at the national institute of sports nis patiala in a video conference seeking their feedback on resumption of trainingwe all requested him to resume training as soon as possible because we need weight training we have been working out but weight training is necessary for us chanu saidechoing mirabais concern national coach vijay sharma said social distancing can be ensured at the training hall in patialaits been almost two months since training was stopped all the muscle mass has finished the campus is sealed no one is coming inside or going out so we can resume training sharma saidour training hall is very big we can easily maintain a fivemetre distance between each weightlifter we have 16 platforms and there are only nine weightlifters so we can easily maintain social distancing while training he addedrijiju said the views expressed by the lifters will be used to create a standard operating procedure for trainingi understand that our weightlifters need to get back to active training in view of the upcoming olympicsthe feedback that i have taken from the athletes and chief coach today will be used to draft the sop for weightlifting he said in a statement after the meetingwe want our athletes to start training but it cannot be at the cost of their health we must take all necessary precautions before we take a decision he reiteratedthe video conference was also attended by sports authority of india sai derector general sandip pradhan sports and youth affairs secretary ravi mittal officials from the target olympic podium scheme tops and the indian weightlifting federationthe minister has said they will bring out a solution within this week or by may 17 mirabai saidcurrently nine weightlifters including mirabai youth olympics gold medallist jeremy lalrinnunga and twotime commonwealth games champion sathish sivalingam are at the camp in patialaon sunday sai formed a sixmember committee to prepare a module for phased resumption of training across disciplines at all its centres once the nationwide lockdown is liftedapart from weightlifters rijiju will also interact with trackandfield athletes and the indian mens and womens hockey teams to take their view regarding the resumption of training