Tokyo Olympics: Five Indian athletes, including Olympics-qualified Priyanka Goswami, Covid 19 positive

New Delhi, April 13: Five track and field athletes, including Tokyo Olympics-bound 20km race walker Priyanka Goswami, and a support staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Sports Authority of India Centre in Bengaluru.

The 2018 Asian Games 1500m gold medallist Jinson Johnson and steeplechaser Chinta Yadav were among the five athletes while race walk coach Alexander Atsybashev has also tested positive for the virus.

Another Tokyo Games-bound race walker K T Irfan has returned negative after he was tested as a primary contact of Johnson.

"My test result which came on Monday was positive and so I am currently in quarantine in my room. I have fever, not very high, and headache also," Johnson told PTI from Bengaluru.

"Otherwise, I have no major problems. I will have another test in three days and I hope to have a negative result. K T Irfan was also tested as he was my primary contact but his result was negative."

A source in the SAI Center said Goswami, Yadav and two more athletes were also COVID-19 positive, apart from Johnson. "Goswami is positive, so is Chinta Yadav and another two. They are all under quarantine at the SAI Center here," the source said.

Goswami had qualified for Olympics by shattering the national record during the National Open Race Walking Championships in Ranchi in February. She had clocked 1 hour 28 minutes and 45 seconds, bettering the earlier national record of 1:29:54 in the name of another Tokyo-bound Bhawana Jat.

The Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard in women's 20km race walk is 1:31:00.