chandigarh the decision to resume outdoor training sessions at the national institute of sports nis in patiala after the coronavirusforced lockdown could have lifted the morale of many olympicbound athletes but not the legendary milkha singhthe flying sikh as he is popularly called said sportspersons do not need a lockdown instead they should be allowed to train as much as they can but by maintaining all the socialdistancing norms he however clarified that only contact sports like boxing and wrestling should be barred as it involves close contact with the opponentsthe athletics federation of india afi had on sunday decided to restart outdoor training for the athletes after an online meeting between the nis officials and the athletes on saturday evening according to a top official in the afi the athletes based at nis patiala sai centre in bengaluru and ooty can resume their training by strictly following the federations sopkhel ko bandh nhi karna chahiye sports should not be halted it is highly recommended that daily training exercise and yoga improves your immune system and so sports should resume as soon as possible but by maintaining all socialdistancing norms milkha told toibarring contact sports like boxing and wrestling i think there is hardly any contact in track and field golf tennis badminton and other disciplines he addedciting his own example milkha who is best remembered for his fourthplace finish in the 400 metres final at the 1960 olympic games said corona ko door rakhne ke liye exercise jaruri hai it is very important to maintain a healthy lifestyle to keep corona at bay i am 91 now i regularly do back exercise and knee exercise if you dont trouble your body it will obviously turn rustyfor an athlete its of no use if he has to train within the four walls he should train outside he saidon being asked what can the athletes start with since they have been locked indoors for more than a couple of months milkhas advice would be keep it simple dont rush into thingsthey should start with simple jogging as their bodies need to warm up before going for formal training rushing into things would only result in injuries which we do not want for any of our athletes he saidmilkha the threetime olympian also rued the fact that the standard of athletics has gone down from his era and called on athletes to give their 100 percent in whatever they doits a sad scenario in most sporting disciplines be it hockey or athletics tell me how many olympic medals have we won in hockey or for that matter in athletics i dont want to discourage our youngsters but they should take a leaf out of the lives of dhyan chand balbir singh sr or milkha singh said milkha who clinched gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 asian games