Olympics should definitely be postponed, feels Sharath Kamal

India's veteran table tennis player Sharath Kamal is in line to play his fourth Olympics in July-August but he wants IOC to postpone mega event due to COVID-19 pandemic. Sharath, who won his first title in 10 years when he won ITTF Oman Open last week, is in self-quarantine ever since he returned from Muscat in wee hours of Monday. With International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) suspending all events until end of April, next month's Asian Olympic Qualifying event in Bangkok has also been postponed indefinitely.

Olympics should definitely be postponed

"As an athlete, I obviously want Olympics to happen but it should t happen. epicentre of virus will keep changing, first it was China, w it is Italy and Iran too is bly affected in Asia. I don't see scenario being safe for Olympics to start on time," 37-year-old told PTI.

"Everyone is talking about social distancing but it is one thing which won't be possible at Olympics. Thousands of athletes would be staying in same vill," he said.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) has t yet taken a call on Summer Games with its president Thomas Bach saying earlier this week that it would be "premature" to do so. More than 11,000 have succumbed to virus worldwide. Sharath, who is world number 38, and 31st-ranked G Sathiyan, are well placed to qualify on basis of ir rankings even if qualifications event don't take place due to pandemic. "re are events happening at moment so change in rankings. If things stay way y are, we should qualify with our rankings," he ded.