Namibia’s internationally acclaimed cyclist Dan Craven has called on fellow athletes to refocus their training methods as they await on the Covid-19 pandemic to subside.
Craven, who rode for Team Namibia at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympic Games, shared the sentiments during a panel discussion on the impact of the coronavirus on the sport sector in Namibia at the Covid-19 Information Centre in the capital.
The 2020 Namibian road cycling national champion said that with sports events currently cancelled or postponed, athletes should not train at full speed but instead refocus their training.
“All of the athletes who have qualified for the Olympics that are also working with my phycologist feels like little train racks. That is what I was told by my phycologist. At the moment, all these athletes were at full speed training for the Olympics with one goal, one obsession, but when they woke up one morning, they were told the games have been postponed for a year. This then crashes you as you don’t know what to do,” he said.
Craven, who will once again wear a Namibian jersey when the rescheduled Olympic Games take place, said athletes who are keeping fit for different competitions should change the way they are preparing to preserve energy.
“Instead of training hard for an uncertain thing or competitions that you don’t know when it will happen, you should refocus and train your weakness, injuries and imbalance so when you come back to full competition, you might have built up your strength and be stronger,” Craven the Olympian.
He further stated that refocusing training, especially for younger athletes who don’t have injuries, can build up strength, which will delay the onset of injuries when they become older athletes.
The Namibian champion also stated that Covid-19 has affected many athletes and as such cyclists too are hard hit. “With events cancelled at the moment, athletes, especially in the cycling world, have lost that income which they got when wearing their sponsor’s branding on their jerseys,” said Craven. – Nampa