Jinson Johnson, Priyanka Goswami test positive for COVID-19

Asian Games gold medalist Jinson Johnson and Tokyo Olympics-bound race walker Priyanka Goswami were among five athletes who tested positive for the coronavirus.

"My coronavirus test result which came on Monday was positive and so I am currently in quarantine in my room in Bengaluru," Jinson Johnson said (File Photo).

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 medalist 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 centre said that 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 centre here," the source said.

Goswami had qualified for the Tokyo 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 Olympic qualifying standard in women's 20km race walk is 1:31:00.