Sikki Reddy, physio test COVID negative

N. Sikki Reddy and her physiotherapist Dr. Ch. Kiran have tested negative for the coronavirus, three days after they initially tested positive.

Doubles specialist N. Sikki Reddy underwent a second test for the coronavirus on Friday, and Saturday's report said she tested negative.

There is huge relief for Indian shuttler N. Sikki Reddy and her physiotherapist Dr. Ch. Kiran, attached to the SAI-Gopi Chand Academy here as they have tested COVID negative after undergoing a second test at a private hospital on Friday.

Sikki and Kiran had tested positive when the Sports Authority of India-selected lab conducted the test on them along with other Olympic probables and the support staff at the Academy on Wednesday as per the Standard Operating Procedure of SAI. All the others tested negative.

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To ensure there is no ambiguity in the first test report, the two had undergone a second test. The report came out on Saturday and to their relief, they tested negative.

“This is a huge relief for me and for all. I was honestly worried that I should not be responsible for anyone else being affected because of me,” Sikki told Sportstar .

“Definitely, this is great news. The thing is that I have had no symptoms and even after two days after the first result, there are no symptoms. So, testing negative now is a great feeling,” added Sikki, who started training with the support staff under the supervision of chief national coach P. Gopi Chand and South Korean coach Park Tae-Sang.

World Champion P.V. Sindhu, women's doubles specialist N. Sikki Reddy, World Championship bronze medallist B. Sai Praneeth, national coach P. Gopi Chand along with his support staff Park Tae-Sang (top left) and Agus Dwi Santoso at the SAI Gopi Chand Academy in Hyderabad last Friday. The shuttlers resumed training after a gap of more than four months.

 

Saturday's development should also mean that action will resume at the SAI-Gopi Academy after a two-day break which was also used to sanitise the entire complex.

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Meanwhile, it has been learnt that world champion P.V. Sindhu will continue to have separate training sessions (she was training separately from 6.30 am to 8.30 am while the others began around 9 am) and that the coaching staff might also be forced to prefer now training sessions for the others including former World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth, World championship bronze medallist B. Sai Praneeth after a longer gap.

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal has been training separately with her husband P. Kashyap and R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt and has informed SAI that she would join the national camp at SAI-Gopi Academy a few days later.