We were very fortunate to stay at the SAI campus during the lockdown, claims Manpreet Singh

The Indian hockey team, unlike others, were stranded at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), in Bengaluru during the lockdown enforced by Covid-19 pandemic. It was during the stay at the institute that the team carried out activities like attending classes via video conference, watching footage of opponents, and also worked out on their fitness. 25-year old Manpreet Singh admitted that they were fortunate enough to stay at the Institute during the past few months.

"We were very fortunate to be staying at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) campus in Bengaluru during the lockdown. We carried out many activities such as attending English classes via video conference, watching footage of our opponents to analyze their strategies, and so on, which helped us deal with the situation,” said Manpreet Singh, as reported by The Times of India.

"We had the national restrictions on outdoor activities, but I did as many core exercises as possible in my room to maintain my fitness. We mostly carried out body-weight training and we also went for individual runs for about 4-5kms around the campus,” added the hockey star.

The Tokyo Olympics has been postponed by a year due to the pandemic situation and will be staged in 2021. Even though Manpreet was very disappointed when the showpiece event was pushed back, he later realized that they could use the extra time on their hand to prepare themselves even better.

"I was disappointed when I first heard that the Olympics has been postponed. However, I knew that the best decision had been taken; keeping in mind the situation the entire world is fighting at the moment. We will definitely use the extra year to take our game to the next level. We have certainly pushed the reset button as far as our preparations are concerned,” concluded Manpreet.