Two Telangana athletes trapped in Turkey

Two Hyderabadis – gymnast Priyanka Sagar and athlete Srikanth of Telangana Sports School (Hakimpet) – are among the Indians trapped in the on-going turmoil in Turkey in the wake of an attempted coup there on Saturday.

Published : Jul 16, 2016 17:25 IST

Priyanka Sagar of Hyderabad at the World School Games gymnastics competition.

Two Hyderabadis – gymnast Priyanka Sagar and athlete Srikanth of Telangana Sports School (Hakimpet) – are among the Indians trapped in the on-going turmoil in Turkey in the wake of an attempted coup there on Saturday.

The two athletes are there in Turkey along with the other members of Indian team for the World School Games.

Priyanka’s father and building contractor, Mahesh, informed

Sportstar that he spoke to the coach who conveyed to him that the young gymnast was fine and that there was nothing to worry.

The 15-year-old Priyanka, is a student of Sri Gayathri College and trains at the Saroornagar Indoor Stadium.

Priyanka, who has been consistently performing well at the National level in her age group, has taken part in the preliminary round of the rhythmic gymnastics in Turkey.

The gymnast’s coach, Swarnalatha, says that the Telangana girl is the only one from the State who got selected for the Turkey meet by virtue of her performance in the Agra selection trials. She also took part in the recent Asian sub-junior gymnastics meet in Kazakhstan.

Priyanka’s father informed that all the Indian athletes have now been asked to stay indoors in Trabzon as travel arrangements to fly them back are now being finalised at the Union Government level. However, he is yet to speak to his daughter and is actually flying to Delhi this evening

Dr. K. Narsaiah, OSD of Telangana Sports School, also informed that the 400m athlete Srikanth, a native of Miryalguda in Nalgonda district and a student of Sports School, is said to be safe. “I spoke to the Hyderabad-based official with the contingent, Someshwar, and was informed that the two Hyderabadis are flying back on July 19 morning and there was nothing to worry,” the Sports School officer said.