Swimming with turtles to stay fit

From swimming in a makeshift farm pool with turtles and fish to fencing with a dummy on a terrace, India's locked down athletes are finding novel ways to stay fit.

The postponement of the 2020 Olympics by a year has given SP Likith, India's top breaststroke swimmer, extra time to make the 59.93sec qualifying time for the 100 metres. He has been stuck at his coach's farm in Karnataka since February and now swims in a tank already inhabited by wildlife that normally supplies the water for crops.

The 21-year-old, who still has to shave two seconds off his personal best to qualify, told AFP he was "lucky" to have the 20-metre long tank where coach Partha Varanashi drills 15 swimmers in all.

"The only difference (from a pool) is .. the water is not clear at all, there are fish and turtles and we don't have lanes," Likith said with a laugh. "It is not boring, it is fun."

Fencer Bhavani Devi has been in quarantine and training alone at home in Chennai since returning from Italy on March 15. The 26-year-old trains with a dummy on the terrace of her house.

"This is not a new idea for me, when I started fencing we used to play with sticks and do target training by placing a mask or target pad on the wall," said Devi, who in 2017 became the first Indian to win a fencing World Cup event.

Devi, who is more used to the plush facilities of leading Italian coach Nicola Zanotti in Livorno, said it was imperative to keep a positive mind through the crisis.